


The Heaviest Weight

by SonjaJade



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: F/M, Lolicon, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-14
Updated: 2012-06-14
Packaged: 2017-11-07 18:21:39
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/434018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonjaJade/pseuds/SonjaJade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kagome has had enough of InuYasha's devotion to Kikyo and she quits the hunt for the jewel. Koga decides to avenge her, only to find that violence sometimes isn't the answer. Character death, graphic violence, lemons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Whiplash

***** I don't own InuYasha or any of the characters within, they are merely the vehicles of my imagination *****

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_**READ AND REVIEW!** _

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Thank Kami the mutt was always silent when it came to his passions with Kagome. It made it so much easier for Koga to imagine it was him making her sing with her release. About six weeks ago, he'd come upon them in mid-coitus near a thundering waterfall, no doubt to hide the sound of their love from their sleeping companions not too far away. Koga stood stock still, back flat against a fat tree, eyes wide and ears straining to hear his Kagome's gentle cries of pleasure, a sound he had never heard her make before. The hanyou had been so entirely wrapped up in loving her and smelling of her that he hadn't noticed Koga's scent trail until afterward, long after Koga had made a wise and hasty retreat. Chest thumping, breath ragged, he ran for miles through the wilds, until finally he stopped near a thicket and finally took care of the ache that had nested in his lower body, thinking of Kagome's mewling voice and picturing her writhing under _his_ touch… _Oh my dear Kagome, you may not have been able to wait for me to take you, but I promise when I finally do you're gonna beg for me every time afterward_ , he thought as he growled and spewed his essence over the soft dirt. _I'll make you forget all about that fuckin' mutt…_ When he thought of how good it felt, how much stronger his release was after hearing her sensual sound, he made it a point to keep sort of close to InuYasha's pack. He'd come up with the idea of masking his scent so her could get closer than he had been last time, experimenting until he got just the right method down, and soon he was a very eager and willing peeping tom.

So this was his usual thing now. He'd hunt down a few deer, maybe a bear or something else large, and cover himself from head to toe in its blood and wrap the stinking skins around him, all to mask his scent so he could get close enough to hear- and sometimes even smell- his beloved Kagome. He'd perch himself in tree, sometimes able to even see her but more often the not he didn't, only because if saw her then he'd see the mutt, and then the mood was ruined with anger. He was perfectly content for his ears to pick up her voice, moaning and gasping. He'd grab his cock and stroke it to the sound of her pleading cries and finally glean some relief in a satisfying jolt of tingling heat and cum, only to have his post-release buzz killed by her dainty voice calling InuYasha's name, and then the hanyou's gruff growl moments later as he spilled his seed into her waiting womb. When he was done torturing himself Koga would lightly jump out of the tree, run towards the nearest water source and bathe, then retrieve his carcasses and drag them back to the den as food, himself no worse for the wear and his tribe well fed for the night.

This went on for months. The mutt hadn't marked her yet, though they'd coupled together many times. Every time their sessions ended with only InuYasha's low grunt, Koga would heave a sigh of relief to himself, knowing that as long as she wasn't marked he still had a shot. Granted, it was probably a million to one chance that she'd let the half-breed go, but it was still a shred of something to hang on to, and he had all the time in the world to wait. As long as he was waiting he was going to continue with the fantasy of her voice in his head, learning from that bastard InuTrasha what she liked to have done to her, so when she became his he would know all her intimate secrets and surprise the hell out of her with his own attentions to her perfect body.

One night as they lay together and Koga waited for them to begin so _he_ could begin, he heard Kagome ask InuYasha, "Um, I know we've been doing this a lot lately, and I love doing it with you, but I have to ask… do you have any intentions of making me your mate?" InuYasha was silent. Silent for a long time. The wind sighed in the trees, and the crickets sang their chirpy songs, but InuYasha said nothing, only clenched his hands into hard fists and remained unnervingly and heartbreakingly silent. His amber eyes closed and he turned his head from her. He spoke volumes in his silence. In fact, it was Kagome who spoke and finally broke the dead quiet air.

"So you don't." Her voice was sad as the first of a thousand tears began to fall. "So this is just some fun way to pass the time while we complete the jewel is it? And what then?" Her tone was becoming venomous, and the volume of her voice was steadily getting louder. "You gonna wish for Kikyo to come back to life so you can mate her? Even though she's been a total bitch to all of us since this whole thing began?" She sat up and pulled her shirt back on. "To think I ever thought I loved you! To think I let you take my virginity from me!" She backhanded him hard enough that his lip bled in a tiny trickle. He gritted his teeth but made no move against her. He knew from the start he'd been playing a dangerous game with her, and now play time was over it seemed.

"Ever since I got here I've been getting pick up lines from every single man we come across, and I always turned them away because I was in love with _you_. And now I find out you had no intentions of ever taking me for yourself because of how you feel about that dead wench!" Kagome was seething, and rightfully so. Koga knew InuYasha's pattern of taking Kagome back to their camp after their love making, waiting till she was asleep, and then bounding off into the night looking for his other girlfriend. That little two-timing punk was getting exactly what he deserved. He felt a smirk growing on his lips.

"Kagome, it's not like that…" InuYasha whispered, knowing full well it _was_ like that. He did love Kagome, but his love for Kikyo was first, and it always would be. He just didn't want Kagome so mad at him and so upset like she was, even though he really couldn't blame her for how she felt. If the tables were turned on him, he'd be even more pissed and would have started swinging his sword around by now.

She stood, retying that little red knot on her green and white shirt. "Then what's it like? Either you mark me right now or I'm going home forever. Get that hunk of dirt and bone to find the goddamned shards. That bitch can see 'em just as well I can." Her body was trembling from her raw, unadulterated outburst of animosity. _Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,_ Koga thought to himself, and made a note not to get on her bad side. EVER.

InuYasha got to his feet and grabbed her shoulders. "You really want me to mark you?"

 _No._ Koga's heart leaped into his throat, thinking this was going to be his last shot at getting her, but was powerless to move. _No, NO,_ _ **NO**_ _,_ _ **KAMI NO**_ _!_ But all he could do was stare helplessly from his perch.

Lucky for him his woman was smarter than that. She calmly looked InuYasha in the eye and said, "Only if you can put me before her." She'd given him an ultimatum: it's me or her.

InuYasha stared back into her seething blue eyes, and then dropped his hands from her, turned and bounded away through the forest. She mumbled to herself and then she screamed at the top of her lungs, knowing he would hear her, "I FUCKING HATE YOU INUYASHA!"

Both wolf and dog winced at that. She never used the f-word, ever. For her to pull that out meant whatever she had with InuYasha was now most certainly over. Kagome sank to her knees, bawling and crying. Koga leaped down and sped to the river, washing the blood from himself and then running back to console her, and hopefully take her back to the den. He was hopeful, but he wasn't stupid. He couldn't force her to stay in a world with InuYasha if she didn't want to be there, and if she decided to go back he would just have to bear that and finally give up.

When he returned to where he'd left her, she was gone. He picked up the scent of her tears easily and followed her through the woods. Not wanting to frighten her, he called out to her quietly, and then he heard her sneeze, and he whirled around and saw her staring back at him. She'd been trying to hide from him, but he found her anyway. "Hi Koga," she said as she looked down at her shoes, looking as if _she'd_ done something wrong.

"Kagome, you're upset, what's wrong?" he asked, knowing full well what was wrong. Much as he wanted to shout from the top of a mountain how happy he was he knew that would not help his cause in this matter at all.

"Nothing… I just… just needed some time to think is all." There was a break in the cloud cover and he made out that the tracks of her tears were still running freely, meaning she'd been crying this whole time. Koga's heart ached for her. Poor kid, fell into the bone eaters well trying to catch her cat and then ended up here with Mistress Centipede trying to rip the jewel out of her. The only one around to save her at the time was that half breed bastard, so she released him from that tree and the rest was history; she'd shattered the jewel and then her and their rag-tag group were on the hunt for all the shards. Somewhere along the way she and the mutt had developed feelings for each other, strong enough for Kagome to ignore Koga's advances, and then the hanyou had taken her virginity but didn't love her enough to take her as his mate. It made Koga hate InuYasha that much more.

"You want me to kill him? You know I can and you know I would if it would make you happy, Kagome." Part of him wanted her to say yes, but part of him wanted her to say no, so that he could stay here with her.

Her face quivered and then she was sobbing into her hands. Koga's hand shook a little as he rubbed her shoulder, the first time she didn't look repulsed at his touch or try to gently push him away. "Kagome, I'm sorry about what InuYasha did to you."

Kagome thought he'd heard the exchange between her and her now ex-lover because of his demon senses, never thinking it was because he was spying on them from the tree tops. She turned and laid her sobbing face on Koga's chest. His heart skipped a beat, and then he wrapped his arms around her and just held her as she wept. He rocked her against him, stroking her hair and planting kisses to the top of her head. She cried for a long time, longer than Koga thought was possible. After a while, she sniffled and pulled away from him a little.

"Koga, thank you for staying here with me, but I really should go back to the others." She sniffled again, wiping at her eyes, "You've been so kind to me, and I just want you to know I'm sorry if I've ever acted harshly against you, I had been bewitched by a hanyou… A stinking, rotten, dirty, no-good hanyou liar." Her eyes spurted new tears, hot tears of anger.

Koga pulled her close to him again, "Kagome, you've been an absolute joy every time I've met with you. Even now, as miserable as you are, you are simply entrancing, and beautiful, and… If it were me, I would have marked you a long time ago."

She looked into his cerulean eyes and saw his undying devotion for her in them, and did not move away from him as he dipped his head to hers and kissed her gently on the lips. Kagome trembled in his strong grip, but she found the courage to kiss him back, bringing up her hand to gently touch Koga's cheek. His hand covered hers and he sighed against her. Koga pulled back from her, slowly, against his will, but in line with his better judgment. He would not allow himself to take advantage of her while she was so upset. He wanted her to come to him because she wanted to, not because he had forced her to.

"Wow, Koga…" her voice was calm and quiet.

"I have waited an insane amount of time to do that, thank you for the opportunity, Kagome." He meant it. Ever since he took her to his den to help them with those fuckin' birds he'd wanted to kiss her, and then in the following time he'd known her he wanted to do much more than that, but for now, this would suffice.

"Umm, I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm going to go back to my own time now. I… I can't stay here any more. Not while that jerk and his bitch are here." Her cheeks were flushed with anger again.

Koga took her hands in his, as he was known to do many times before, "Kagome, you say the word and that fucker's dead, I swear I'll do it for you." His tone was pleading; he wanted InuYasha's blood worse than Sesshomaru did; that half breed had cut his woman's soul to the core, and that was unforgivable.

Kagome smiled a little. "It wouldn't change anything, Koga. And you know I'm not like that." She rested her head against his chest, again, much to Koga's unending delight. "Thank you for thinking enough of me to want to get revenge on my behalf, but really, it's just all for the best if I go on home."

She heard Koga whine softly, and she frowned knowing she was breaking his heart. "Would you walk with me back to Miroku and Sango and the others? I don't want to go by myself."

Koga was holding back tears. It was all over then. Looked like he'd have to mate Ayame after all. "Can you kiss me one last time, please? I mean…" he was shocked he'd even asked her. "If you're going home, then I'll never have another opportunity… and you have no idea how much I care for you Kagome. You don't know how long I have stood in the shadows, waiting for something like this to happen so maybe you'd be mine instead… But I understand that you want to go, and I won't stop you. Just please let me kiss you once more, and then I'll take you back…"

Kagome tilted her head back and pulled Koga gently towards her, where their mouths met with an eager tenderness, letting the world slip away from them, if only for a moment. Her lips parted and he eased his way in, letting her know he wouldn't just rush in and overtake her without permission. When she began to respond to his movements he felt that heat beginning to build in his gut again and knew he'd have to stop before she felt his hardness against her. She tasted of the last meal she had, roasted fish and ramen, and Koga burned the memory of it into his brain. Kagome had never thought of Koga as anything but a friend, but she had to admit, his kisses were much more refined than InuYasha's, his touch was gentler, more calming, and everything about him in that small moment of time was just so special and perfect… it made her regret how she'd acted towards him, and she thought briefly of staying and taking him up on his offer for her to become his mate, if only to see the look on InuYasha's face when he found out. But then she felt guilty for having such a hurtful thought, and decided it would be best for everyone involved if she just go back to where she belongs. Kagome broke their sweet embrace, and Koga whispered as she pulled away from him, "I'll always love you, Kagome." She nodded and then took his hand, and they walked in silence back to where she and the half-breed had left their friends.

When they were just a few feet away from where they all lay sleeping, she turned to him and said, "I'll never forget you Koga. I wish you all the best." She stood on her toes and threw her arms around his neck, pecking him once on the lips, and then turning to go join her companions. Then she thought of something and asked him to wait a second. He watched as she rummaged through that yellow bag she carried with her all the time and then came quietly back to him.

"Here, take these," they were bags of potato chips. "I know how much you like them, and I don't want InuYasha to have them. I can get more at home anyway." Koga was dumbstruck. "Oh, and take this too," she said as she pulled the red tie from around her neck. She looked at it, and then rubbed it along her neck, picking up her scent. She rolled it up, kissed it, and handed it to him, where he instantly took it to his nose and inhaled her smell. Kagome smiled at him, and said, "Thank you for everything, Koga. I'll miss you."

"You… you're too good for him anyway, Kagome. I'll always remember you. If you change your mind and want to come back, you know you'll always have a place with me." He shed his tears for her so she could see them. He wanted her to see what she did to him emotionally. Kagome's own eyes watered a little, and she reached up and kissed him deeply one last time. And then she turned and entered camp, and then Sango awoke with her presence, asking her where InuYasha was and why she was alone. Koga turned and left her.

He hopped up into a tree, tore open the food she'd given him and cried as he scarfed his salty treats down, even emptying the crumbs into his mouth when each bag was emptied. Then he took the red tie she'd given him and tied it around his left wrist. With his sadness sated, he decided that even if Kagome didn't want him to, he'd have to find and kill InuYasha anyway, for himself, for his own reasons. He bent to where he'd last seen the asshole standing and tracked his scent to the south east.

"I'm gonna make that bastard pay," he said as he ran. " _Nobody_ fucks with my woman like that."


	2. No Remorse

"Kikyo," he said as he followed her soul collectors to where she sat near the foot of a towering tree. "It's over between Kagome and I, we don't have to hide anything any longer." She rose to her feet, and greeted him with a kiss and a cold embrace. "And when we complete the jewel I will take you as my mate." He kissed her cold neck and her cold cheek before coming back to her cold lips. "I can't fuckin' wait, Kikyo. I can't wait to be able to love you the way I have wanted to for so long…" As if to make his point clear, he pressed his pulsing shaft into her cold body. "I can't wait to kill that bastard Naraku for what he did to us… I just can't wait." InuYasha had tried once to make love to her in this body she now had, but there was no place for him to put himself inside of her, she'd been created without those parts, and so that's why he usually satisfied himself with Kikyo's reincarnation before coming to see her. He was a once around the block kind of lover.

Her quiet chuckle made him sigh, because he knew he would have to wait, and would have to find a way to bring the jewel together and kill Naraku sooner if he didn't want to have to wait so long. She kneaded his shoulders as she made him sit down in front of her, her fingers just as cold and hard as her personality towards Kagome. "Dearest, we shall see our mission complete, never doubt that. Just be patient."

InuYasha grumbled. He was anything but patient. If it were up to him he'd take his bride to be and they'd go right now and kill him on their own. But he couldn't let Miroku not have the satisfaction of having a hand in ridding himself of the curse of the kazaana, and surely Sango would want to be by his side as it broke. He wondered briefly how they would react to Kagome's departure, and then to Kikyo taking her place at his side and in his pack. This probably wouldn't fare well for him… but that wasn't going to keep him from his first love.

As if she read his mind, she said, "You should return to your pack and find out what the girl's plans are. If she is leaving you should give them a week after she's gone, and let them decide if they want to allow me in. If not, then we will go alone."

He nodded and let her embrace him from behind with arms that were as soft as a stone and cold as a waterlogged grave. Then he rose, bent and kissed her, then made his way back to the group he'd left. Koga sat high in a tree dripping with boar blood and skins, far enough away that Kikyo couldn't detect his jewel shards in his legs but close enough to watch that silver haired fuck amble slowly back to his camp. Koga unsheathed his sword, a weapon he'd never used before, and quietly leapt down. He wandered almost aimlessly behind InuYasha, watching and keeping pace with him but not acting like he was following him. Finally, he reached the camp, but could hear Sango and Kagome talking, sensed that they were all awake, and turned around and went back where he came, then sat at the foot of a tree with gnarled roots and curled up to sleep a little before daybreak.

Koga made like a boar, slowly moving about in the underbrush. He even made rooting sounds as if he were just a boar out for a midnight snack. Once he saw that InuYasha had finally drifted off to sleep, he meandered slowly back around to the front of the tree. When he was within thirty feet, he made his lethal move. He stood up, flinging the skins off his body, sprinted to InuYasha, and just as the hanyou was aware that Koga was close by, Koga swung his katana in what seemed to be slow motion force. The unused blade was honed to a razor's edge, and it hummed as it sliced through the air. InuYasha's eyes blinked open just as the blade was cutting through his vocal cords, and was too stunned to move as it continued on through him; through his sinewy muscle, through his trachea, through his spinal cord, through his vertebrae, through his arteries and veins, through his skin at the back of his neck, through his mane of hair, and then it came to a stop three inches into the tree trunk.

The cut was so clean that InuYasha lived, and would continue to live, so long as his head was not pulled from his shoulders*. Koga stood dominantly in front of him, and then sunk to crouch before him.

"All you had to do was let me have her." His voice was low, almost kind. "All you had to do was tell her that she wouldn't have a future with you and tell her to come and claim her rightful mate. But you couldn't do that could you? You had to break her perfect heart first. You make me so fuckin' sick." He saw that Sesshomaru had come upon them. The Aristocratic Assassin saw what the wolf prince had done and was impressed with his precision with his blade. He sat on the ground and lounged across from his brother, enjoying the stunned look on his face the gurgling noises coming from his silent throat. He knew the wolf and the hanyou had a deep seated hatred for each other, all over that human girl. _Such stupid posturing over one mortal,_ he thought, though he knew he'd do the same if it were for Rin.

"I never wanted anything more than to love and care for her the way she deserved. I wanted to mate her and have hanyou cubs of my own. But you…" The deep blue pools of his eyes glared at him, knowing the dying fool would have to listen to everything he had to say. "You were the one she wanted, and you didn't even respect her enough to mate her properly."

"InuYasha, you have dishonored your human?" Sesshomaru asked.

Of course he could not reply. Koga turned to the taiyokai. "He took her many times but never mated her. And I don't mean just touchy feely bullshit, I mean he fucked the shit out of her every time, stole her innocence and then told her he was going to mate the dead priestess as soon as the jewel was completed, that he was going to wish for her to be alive again."

Sesshomaru glared at InuYasha. "You have disgraced our father's lineage once again. Even this Sesshomaru's darling Rin knows he won't take her virginity until she old enough to be mated." Sesshomaru stood and drew Tokijin. "Just one more thing to add to the already long list of reasons to kill you." His honey eyed gaze leveled at Koga. "This Sesshomaru thanks you for incapacitating this stupid waste of my father's seed. You may leave now."

"Wait," Koga began, "Sesshomaru, if it's all the same, I'd love to see you finish this. He has dishonored _my_ woman," he looked at InuYasha, "yes I said _MY_ woman. I hope you squirm in hell you hanyou bastard." His eyes were livid and he growled the last of his sentence out.

Sesshomaru smirked. Maybe the wolf wasn't as bad as he'd imagined. He put Tokijin away, saying "This Sesshomaru was wrong about you. Let us kill him together." Koga was shocked that the Lord of the Western Lands had even offered to share in killing his brother, watching as the "Killing Perfection" walked to stand beside InuYasha on his left, then Koga moved forward and stood on InuYasha's right. They each took a handful of white hair, and simply lifted InuYasha's head from his shoulders. His body slumped forward, spurting blood and then slowly dying to an oozing pressure.

"This Sesshomaru desires to take his head and mount it at my castle. Do you object?" he asked as he ignored Tenseiga's plea to be drawn and resurrect the half breed. Instead he drew Tokijin and skewered InuYasha's head on to it and carried it over his shoulder, proudly displaying that the son of a human bitch was dead. He then sprayed his poison on InuYasha's body, causing it to melt and disintegrate, leaving only the fire rat robe behind. Sesshomaru took this, wrapped his hand in it and grabbed Tetsusaiga.

"No. I never want to see his face again." Koga turned and walked away, leaving his sword stuck in the tree, and a few steps later deciding he better remove the evidence of him ever being here. "Sesshomaru?" The demon stopped walking, never turning but waiting for Koga to finish. "Thank you for not decimating me on sight."

"You will have to show this Sesshomaru how you cloaked your scent so well. It could be very useful in other battles." He resumed his almost lighthearted gait and then disappeared in crackling orb of energy, jetting back to mount his stupid brother's head on a stake no doubt.

Koga sighed as he made his second trip to the river, going there to wash the blood off himself, knowing that if he couldn't make Kagome stay, that at least he had satisfied his need to make sure that little punk would never have a second chance to hurt another woman. By the time he reached the riverbank his physical need for Kagome had left him, probably when his anger overcame his wonton desire. There was such a satisfaction that came with slicing through InuYasha's throat… The smell of his fearful blood had been nearly orgasmic in itself. He took great pains to wash the blood from his blade, not wanting anyone to know it was him who'd done it, but would rather let Sesshomaru have the glory on this one. His reasons were just as valid as his own, and Koga didn't want InuYasha's name saddled to his own if it didn't need to be. He trudged back to his den, dragging in the two largest carcasses, then settling down in his cave and sleeping through the morning bustle of his clan waking and going on with life, full of sorrowful relief.

* * *

Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kagome all mounted onto Kirara's back and flew back to Edo so that she could go to the well, step through and be gone from the Sengoku Jidai forever. No one thought InuYasha's absence to be strange, figuring he was so ashamed of himself he couldn't show up at all. All the better that he didn't come anyway, Sango had vowed to kill him if he had. Kagome made her final farewell to Kaede, gave tearful embraces to her companions who had become as close as family to her, and then swung her legs over and jumped in… only to land with a loud thud at the bottom.

The people above leaned over the edge. "Are you okay Kagome?" Miroku called out. She sat in a confused huddle at the bottom of the well. She nodded as she reached for his outstretched hand and pulled herself back out.

"It didn't work, the well stopped working…" she said in awe. "How am I supposed to get home if it doesn't work?" Her eyes were full of fear; what if she never got to go back? What if she was stuck here with that rotten InuYasha and Kikyo forever? The strain on her was too much to bear, and she doubled over in tears, hugging her knees for dear life.

Sango knelt and hugged her. "Shh, it's going to be alright Kagome, there has to be a reason it's not working. We'll find out what it is and take care of it." She glanced at her fiancé and he nodded as he took Shippo and went to find Kaede.

After Sango calmed Kagome down, they went also to Kaede's hut, where the old miko asked her a dozen and fifty questions it seemed about her relationship to InuYasha. After her answers were all given, the woman thought hard. "It must have stopped working because ye two are no longer together or maybe because ye two are now enemies. We must find InuYasha and put this right."

"No!" Kagome cried out. "I don't ever want to see him again!" She cried on Sango's shoulder again.

"Lady Kaede, InuYasha has been… rather unfaithful to her… with Kikyo," Miroku stammered out.

"My sister? But she is dead, not even in a body that is worth anything."

"Yes, but that has not stopped him from claiming her as his mate. He's going to wish on the completed jewel for her to live again so that he may mark her." Miroku tried not to look at Kagome; he couldn't imagine how painful it must have been for her to find out about it the way she had.

"Oh my. In any case, we still must find him, I believe the well's function cannot be used as long as they are apart. Maybe he only needs to be near by…"

Miroku stood and said, "Shippo and I will find him, explain the situation and try to get him to come back. You ladies stay here and wait. We'll be back by sunset, and if not, well… wait until morning to count us dead, InuYasha can be quite hard to convince at times."

And so they sat and waited.

* * *

Kikyo was walking back the way she had come, trailing in the direction of where InuYasha said he would be taking his pack. She came to where they had camped the night before, saw the wet dead fire, the fish bones and foil candy wrappers that Shippo neglected to clean up, and then she headed due west, which is where he said they'd be heading. After walking in this direction for about twenty minutes, she saw a glinting white object on the ground, and walked curiously toward it. When she got there she bent and picked it up, knowing her own handiwork at once.

InuYasha's subjugation beads had survived Sesshomaru's poison spray because she had blessed them herself to resist it. She looked at the shape of the puddled mass she pulled it from. It was in the shape of a body, the shoulders and arms clearly visible, but no head. There were a few strands of hair caught in the bark of the tree to her left, and judging by the cut in the tree, the pieces of shortened hair fluttering in the wind, she knew immediately what had transpired here, had a pretty good idea of who had done it, and could only be filled with anger once more. Then she heard the shouts from the monk and the kitsune, shouting for InuYasha, and so she went to them to speak for her mate.

She sauntered up to Miroku who stopped crying out when he caught sight of her, glaring at her instead.

"Kikyo."

"Monk."

"Where's InuYasha?"

"Dead."

Miroku's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

"Dead. Sesshomaru killed him. Tell Kagome she got her wish." Devoid of emotion, devoid of respect. She spun around and made to walk away from him. He saw InuYasha's necklace in her hand, and it finally hit him that she was serious. Instantly he was vexed by her snotty attitude.

"She would never wish for something like that!" he shot back at her. "She loved InuYasha as much or more than you did, and no matter how much she despises him now, she could never wish for him to die. For her to be your reincarnation you certainly don't know anything about her."

"I don't care to know anything about her!" she yelled as she turned back to Miroku. "You tell her he's gone and now we can both be miserable."

Miroku watched with an angry expression as she walked away, but was glad to be done with her. Shippo had hidden behind a rock when Kikyo showed up, and now he popped back out of hiding. "InuYasha's dead?" Tears were standing unshed in his green eyes.

"It appears so." He made no effort to find his remains, only said a prayer and then gathered the sobbing Shippo into his arms and found Kirara. They flew back to Edo, shocked and suddenly not sure of what to do. InuYasha had been the glue of the group, their fearless leader, even if he was an asshole more often than not. What direction were they supposed to go in now? How were they supposed to defeat Naraku? Such a sad thing to have happened, yet Miroku was not upset. If Sesshomaru killed him it was beyond anything any of them could have done. That was a blood feud, one that would eventually have ended the same way before long anyhow. He only hoped Kagome could handle the news.

They touched down in front of Kaede's and when they saw Shippo in tears and no InuYasha, they automatically assumed the worst had happened. Kagome's face alternated between sad and angry, fearing that Koga had disregarded her wishes and gone on and killed the mutt anyway. When Miroku told her that it had been Sesshomaru who'd killed him, her face eased into a clam façade and she sat quietly. Kaede determined that InuYasha's death must have caused the well to stop working, and that Kagome might as well face the fact that she was now a permanent resident of the Sengoku period. She asked if it would be alright if she took a walk to clear her mind, and they let her go.

Kagome's mind was in a dizzied state. In the course of less than a day, she'd gone from being InuYasha's girlfriend to his ex, to being sort of Koga's girlfriend, to being unable to go back home, and now learning that Sesshomaru had killed InuYasha… It all happened so damn fast. She hoped he was spared a slow and tortuous death, but was sure if Sesshomaru had anything to do with it InuYasha probably suffered to the very end. She walked endlessly in circles, trying to figure it all out in her mind, reasons why things had happened the way they did, if there was a way to somehow get word to her family that she was stuck and could never return… She walked a long way, alone with her thoughts and her worries and her stupid feelings, not realizing she'd strayed into a part of the forest she wasn't familiar with, and found herself completely lost.

"Oh man, now I can't find my way out of here on top of everything else," and she fell to her knees and succumbed to her tears once more. Eventually she laid herself prone on the ground and cried into the crook of her arm, inconsolable and completely alone and disoriented in the unfamiliar maze of brush and trees.

Koga heard her cries on the wind, stopped in his tracks and changed course immediately. He flew through the woodland trying to find Kagome, knowing it was her because of her vocal pattern and cadence of her cries. He jumped and ran and sidestepped and otherwise raced to her side. He scented her tears and knew he was getting close, her sobs getting louder. And then he saw her, sort of curled on her side, face streaked with dirt and eyes red and puffy from tears. "Kagome," he said as he gathered her up into his arms. Her body was shaking from sorrow, and he rocked her again, as he had last night, and she welcomed his touch. Koga pulled her face down to his chest just held her, running his fingers through her black wavy hair, kissing the top of her head occasionally and whispering to her, "Shh, it's okay Kagome, I'm right here. I won't let anything happen to you." Koga stayed by her that whole time she cried, until finally her trembling ceased and her voice came back to her.

"Koga, the well stopped working." Kagome sniffled as a few more tears ran unchecked down her face. "Kaede says… says it's because of Inu… Inu…" and she lost herself again to her pain. Koga kissed her forehead. Without batting a lash he said, "I heard what happened to him. I'm sorry Kagome. Even though he was a jerk to you, I know you both were really close." He felt a twinge of guilt, knowing she was crying because of something he'd started. Hell something he finished if you get right down to it, Sesshomaru only helped a little, and it wasn't like Koga couldn't lift that ugly head off by himself.

She took a deep breath, seemed to steady herself, and then tried again to tell him about the well. "It stopped working because he's gone. I am now here for the rest of my life." Kagome pulled the top of her blouse up a little and wiped her face on the inside of it. "I don't know what I'm gonna do."

Koga closed his eyes; he wanted so badly to tell her it was so simple: return with him to his den and become his mate. The rest would happen on its own. They could combine packs and destroy Naraku together, and then maybe if the jewel was ever complete she could decide what the right wish to make would be, if Kikyo didn't get to it first. He once overheard Sesshomaru tell Rin, 'If you know what you want, why dawdle?'** and he decided the same applied to this situation. So he took a deep breath…

"Kagome, my offer still stands." Those blue eyes locked with each other. "You'll be a queen, you'll be treated with love and honor and respect, not just by me but all of what's left of my pack. Come back with me. Come be my mate."

Kagome lowered her head. Koga… So many thoughts came to mind when his name was mentioned. It was obvious he was hung up on her bad, but not in the way that InuYasha had been. With InuYasha, it was almost like he'd been goaded into liking her, with Koga it had been there from the beginning, up front and honest and no bones about it. Part of her said that she was stupid, mourning the loss of someone who didn't give two shits about her really, only using her as a "jewel detector" and a body replacement for his dead girlfriend. Part of her said that despite the arguments they had and the tough times they shared, InuYasha had been a good hearted person, he'd just gotten caught up in some horrible scheme with Naraku, and she reasoned that if that he and Kikyo hadn't been betrayed, they'd likely be married and have kids of their own anyway, and she couldn't hold his love for Kikyo against him. Finally she spoke to him, "Koga, I need time."

Well, it wasn't 'Yes let's go right now!' but it wasn't 'No way,' either. "Of course, Kagome. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be so pushy. I just want you to know that you'll be well taken care of and that you don't have to worry about being homeless." Kagome squirmed against him and he released his hold on her, not wanting her to think he was holding her against her will. She merely shifted her position and laid her head back on his chest.

"Can you hold me just a little bit longer?"

"I'd be honored."

They watched the sunset around them, coloring their little part of the forest in ambers, crimsons and oranges, and then how they faded into pinks and lavenders, and soon the violet of night was upon them.

"Koga I don't know where I am or how to get back. Can you please lead me out of here?" Her voice was quiet, defeated.

"I'd rather carry you if you'll let me."

"Okay."

He scooped her up and ran with her, her face buried in his chest to keep from getting sick as the scenery flew past at a blinding speed. He knew just the right way to go, and before even five minutes had past, he was slowing and had stopped just outside the tree line, overlooking Edo from a hill she'd never ventured to before. She took in the view, a new angle on an old stomping ground. Koga crossed his arms and stood beside Kagome. He crossed his arms in an effort to keep from touching her. With a sigh she turned to him and said, "I guess I better get back, I'm sure they're worried about me." Koga nodded. She looked at him for a moment, studying his posture and the expression on his face. "Just give me some time Koga. Everything is moving so fast… I just found out about his death today. I just found out I'm stuck here forever today. I need some time to sort everything out." Kagome lightly touched his cheek and he closed his eyes and sighed. She felt his face redden even though she couldn't see it. That warm flush told her more than anything he'd said all night to her. She knew then that he really did love her and would do right by her all the rest of her days. That was now something else for her to consider while she gathered her thoughts over the next few weeks.

"Take as long as you need, Kagome. I ain't goin' anywhere, and you know where to find me when you're ready." He took her hand and kissed the center of her palm as he removed it from his face. She took him in once more before she turned and walked briskly down the hill, stepping inside the old miko's hut without so much as a glance back.

Koga sat down on the grassy slope and waited until the lights had been put out in the hut, and then he walked down closer. Normally she'd sense his jewel shards, but she'd been so upset all day that Kagome hadn't noticed his approaches at all. He peered in and saw she'd finally fallen asleep next to Sango and Shippo, and he was relieved that she was at last getting some rest. He turned from the hut and raced back to his den and tried to get some sleep himself. _If she needs time, I've got plenty of that._ It was his last thought before falling asleep.

* * *

*I don't know if this can actually happen. I would assume you'd still bleed out too quickly but this is fiction and this is what I thought should happen. The fact that he's half demon will allow for certain details to be a little fudged.

**This Sesshomaru quote is not from the manga or anime it is from a FF story called "Any Way the Wind Blows", a Sess/Kagura epic. It's on my favorites list, it's totally awesome, and you should read it after you read this.

* * *

Forgive me, I feel like I've made Sesshomaru way OOC.


	3. Phantom Lord

It had been nearly three weeks. Koga came and checked on Kagome everyday, almost vigilant in his visits. He'd walk the grounds of Edo and the nearby forest with her, sometimes hand in hand, sometimes just side by side, always talking and always walking. Miroku and Sango watched over her from afar, protecting her like their little sister, making deadly sure he did nothing to upset her. She always came back from their little encounters at ease and seemingly more at peace than when she left. And on more than one occasion Miroku could have sworn he saw Koga's tail wagging.

It was hard for InuYasha's pack to imagine Kagome with anyone but him, but as they watched her come out of her sorrow filled haze with Koga by her side, gently coaxing her out, they began to wonder what in the world had kept her from being with him in the first place. They seemed to go together so naturally, so perfectly, so unlike when she and InuYasha had been together. When Kagome was done walking around with him, they'd return to Kaede's hut, he'd leave her with a chaste kiss to her cheek and would be off like a shot, only to return the very next day and they'd be off again.

One day Koga showed up before Kagome had gotten back from the hot spring with Sango. Miroku had been meditating out in the yard while Shippo had gone to play with some of the village children.

"She'll be back in a little bit," the monk said without opening his eyes. Koga had a demonic aura that was a lot like InuYasha's now: non threatening.

"Oh. Thanks monk."

"You can call me Miroku, we're not strangers anymore." He was serene in his lotus position. Koga leaned against the side of the hut, arms crossed and looking off into the distance, just calmly biding his time. "She talks about you a lot, Koga."

The wolf's eyes widened as he regarded his new 'friend'. "Really? What does she say?" His voice was excited and hardly quiet. Miroku noticed the wind caused by his tail wagging and smiled inside.

"She says you're really kind, really concerned about her, and she thinks you genuinely love her." Miroku opened one eye and looked at the wolf sidelong, "I know first hand though that you can tell a girl what she wants to hear in order to achieve your own personal goals. If you're playing her Koga, trust me _I'll_ know."

"Kami no," the wolf said as he started pacing. "It's not like that at all monk- I mean Miroku. I have loved her since the day I set eyes on her. She's everything I could ever want in a mate… I mean… She's so… and then she's…" He sighed, unable to find the right words to get his point across. "She's fuckin' perfect. Just perfect."

"Your inarticulation helps prove to me that your intentions are good." Miroku got to his feet. "She's been hurt pretty badly by InuYasha. I just don't want you taking advantage of her fragile state."

"I swear to you that I will not allow myself to do anything with that would tarnish her any more than she already has been. I couldn't live with myself if I hurt her." And then in that instant he heard InuYasha's voice in his head, gurgling as he spoke, ' _But you don't get it asshole, you already hurt her by murdering me and then lying about it… What are you gonna do when she figures out you're the one who killed me?'_ Guilt settled itself in the pit of his stomach. His inner voice shot back, _'I was justified. I didn't know she was gonna be stuck here. I killed you for MY benefit, not hers.'_ He shook his head a little.

"You alright, Koga?" Kagome's voice asked as she came strolling with Sango, her hair freshly washed and in a clean kimono. Her voice was the most beautiful sound Koga'd ever heard in his whole life, her face the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, her scent the sweetest thing to ever have assaulted his nose. Just like he'd told the monk, she was fuckin' perfect.

"Yeah, I just had a gnat flying near my face. You ready for our walk?" He offered her his hand.

"Actually, I was wondering if we could all come in for a moment, I want to talk to all of you." Koga's smile quickly faded. Something didn't feel right here… Miroku and Koga both looked at Sango, who only beamed back at him, signaling that everything was going to be alright, and then they ducked into the too warm hut. Kaede had gone to birth a child, and they were granted some relative privacy for the moment. Kagome began with clearing her throat, then she took a deep breath.

"We all know how I used to feel about InuYasha. I have struggled to come to terms with the situation and have come to only one conclusion. It just was never meant to be with us. Even if he were still alive, he'd be with Kikyo. Though I don't much like her, I can understand why they felt the need to be together so badly. I forgive InuYasha for his feelings for his love, and I understand now that it must have been hard to choose between the two of us. I tried to put myself in his situation and kept coming out with the same result. So I have forgiven him in my heart, and his memory is now at peace in my mind." Miroku squeezed her shoulder. What an adult way to deal with this horrible tragedy.

"I've come to terms with losing my family as well. They knew that at any time something might happen to me. They encouraged me to come anyway. In some ways, this has become more my home than where I used to live anyway. I consider Miroku, Shippo and Sango to be my brothers and sister, I consider Kaede to be like my grandmother…" She looked nervously at Koga. "I consider you to be my very best friend, a person who would protect me from every evil and lavish me with every privilege," she lowered her head to hide her blush, "and shower me with affections that I don't deserve."

"What do you mean 'don't deserve'? I should say that of you!" Miroku and Sango shared a glance and winked at each other. They could feel what was happening here...

"Koga, you made an offer to me in the woods the night that InuYasha left me. Would you be so kind as to repeat it please, in front of my family. I want them to hear for themselves what you asked of me."

Koga's eyes never left hers, shining with his love for her, becoming entranced by her as he felt the rest of the world falling away again. It was amazing, this hold she had on him when she gazed at him like this… "Kagome, I want you to come with me back to my den and my pack and be my mate. I want you to be my princess and rule by my side over the Eastern territories, bear my cubs, be my lover, my friend, my everything. And I didn't just offer this to you that night he left, it has been a standing invitation since the day I brazenly kidnapped you."

Kagome wiped a single tear away. "Yeah you didn't have to kidnap me ya know, I would have helped if you'd come and asked nicely."

"I lost all train of thought when I saw your face, Kagome. Please forgive me." Sango looked at Miroku and gave him this funny, weepy eyed look. Miroku rolled his eyes smirking, knowing one of his well worn pick-up lines when he heard it.

"May I have a moment with my family Koga? And don't just go outside the door either, I really need some privacy. Go across the bridge and I'll come find you in a few minutes." Kagome's eyes were welling up again, and she waited for him to turn and leave before she allowed any tears to fall from her.

"Kagome, are you gonna go with him?" Sango asked almost greedily.

"I don't know yet. I wanted to know what you guys thought."

"Well," Miroku said as he poked at the fire absently, "he is certainly seems to care for you very deeply. He's never made anyone think he has anything less than adoration for you." He looked at her. "Ultimately, it's what do you feel you want to do, Kagome. Are you ready to go be a ruling wolf demon's mate?"

Kagome drew her knees to her chest. "He's so smart, and when it's just him and me, he's not arrogant like he used to be in front of InuYasha. And those times when I would still break down and cry, he would just hold me and hang on tight to me, just run his fingers through my hair and never do anything that I didn't want him to do. He was so soothing. He makes me feel at peace with myself, like there's hope that my situation is not as bad as I thought it was."

Kaede walked in just as Kagome finished. "If he makes you at peace with yourself child, ye should go with him, start your new life and be happy in the time you have left here."

"And he's respectful to me, something I'd never experienced with InuYasha before." She regarded her friends, now considered family. "Can any of you give me a reason _not_ to go?"

"I'll miss you, that's a reason." Sango's eyes were shining.

"There's no doubt your presence among us will be very missed," Miroku added. "It'll be harder to find the jewel shards without you, but maybe we'll just go find Naraku kill him, and say to hell with the shards, leave those to Kikyo." Fuckin' bitch was guardian of the stone, right? Let her find the pieces.

"I will miss all of you as well, but it's not as if I won't ever come back. I mean, is there something wrong with Koga that I shouldn't take him up on his… proposal? Is there some reason I shouldn't mate him?"

Everyone was quiet. No one could come up with a reason. "Congratulations Kagome, looks like there's gonna be a wedding!" Sango said as she threw her arms around the girl who was not in her right time. Kagome smiled her first real smile since InuYasha led her away from their camp site on the last night she saw him alive, and that's when Sango knew her little sister had made the right decision.

On wobbly legs, Kagome walked out to the edge of Edo and met her intended on the footbridge over the river. He was sitting down, legs dangling and swinging off the edge. "Hey Kags." She giggled at his nickname for her. "Did you have a nice talk with your pack?"

"Yes. I have made a rather important decision." Her hand wormed its way into his. They sat on the edge of the bridge quietly for a moment, watching the blue sky and the clouds rolling past, birds flying and listening to the sounds of them singing. He was thankful she wasn't a demon at the moment or else she would have heard his heart thundering in his chest with anticipation. As if she sensed his inner thoughts, she turned and smiled at him as a light blush stole across his tanned cheeks.

"Koga, will you take me home?" Her voice was clear and bright, happy.

The wolf's mouth opened slightly, a gasp escaping him as he stared at his beautiful mate-to-be. "Kagome, do you really mean it? Are you going to be…" he swallowed, "you're going to be my mate?"

She nodded as she leaned in to his chest. Koga turned back to face the river as he slowly put his arm around her and squeezed her, then laid his head on the top of hers. "I love you Kagome."

"I… I love you too Koga." She turned to look at him, and he leaned down to her and kissed her tenderly on the lips. Her hand went again to his face, as it always had, and his hand covered hers, as it always would, and they sealed their promise to one another in the mid morning sun.

"Aww, look at that!" Sango said from the doorway. "Isn't that about the cutest thing!"

"Makes me jealous that it's not you and I there." Miroku said as he put a light hand on her hip. Surprisingly, she didn't slap him. She only said, "When you can commit to me and only me, then we'll see what happens, monk," as she slowly removed his hand.

Koga broke away from her for just a moment. "We have an audience my dear."

"Let's really give em something to look at," she said breathlessly as she pulled him in for a deep and passionate kiss, slipping her tongue into his mouth easily, allowing him to taste her sweet breath once again, feeling her soft wet mouth on his. His hand wound it's way into her dark tresses while the other one slid down her back and rested on the swell of her bottom.

"Dammit," Miroku said as he slinked away from the doorway. "That's torture right there."

"Why monk?" Kaede said as she maneuvered to get a better look. Sango giggled, and Miroku only grumbled to himself, leaving a very confused Kaede peering from behind the bamboo mat over her door, so very happy for Kagome, and so very hopeful for them both.

* * *

Sesshomaru sat with Rin in his lap, and only because they were alone. When he had first came to camp with it almost three weeks ago, she had screamed when she saw InuYasha's bloody head. The next time he ate he saved the pelt from his kill and wrapped it in that. Now it sat amongst their supplies, hidden in plain sight.

Now they lazed a bit in a clearing of some endless forest or another, on the way back to his palace. "Sesshomaru-sama? Why did my Lord take his brother's head?" Rin asked as she dozed under his hand lazily running through her dark hair, trying to lull her into a short nap before they continued on. She hadn't asked earlier about it because they hadn't had a chance to be alone, and her Lord seemed grumpy when Jaken had asked.

"Half brother Rin." His voice was only mildly irritated.

"Why did Sesshomaru-sama take his _half brother's_ head?"

"Because he was a waste of air."

Rin was quiet for a moment. Then she raised her head with a panicked look on her face. "Is Rin a waste of air, Sesshomaru-sama?"

Sesshomaru's honeyed gaze fell to her chocolate eyes. "Why does Rin ask such silly questions?"

"Because Rin is small and slow and always needs protection." Her innocent and childish rant curled Sesshomaru's lips slightly.

"Rin is most definitely _not_ a waste of air. Rin is very special to this Sesshomaru." His hand guided her back to the warmth and softness of his mokomoko. "Rin is his chibe-hime." His clawed hand resumed stroking her hair as she yawned under his easy touch. "Rin must rest now."

"Okay, Sesshomaru-sama." She was snoring lightly in a matter of moments. Once Sesshomaru was sure she was asleep, his lips ghosted to her temple and gave her the lightest of kisses. He made sure mokomoko would keep her undisturbed as he rose to his feet. He'd been sensing the dead miko's presence all morning, flitting around on the edge of his senses, and so he was especially concerned for Rin today. He'd sent Jaken to find the child some food, fearing Rin would not be adequately protected from the vengeful mate of his half brother, and he was afraid Kikyo might try to hurt the girl to get back at him for lifting InuYasha's stupid head from his stupid body. Almost as if she were waiting for the child to slip into slumber, she appeared in the distance, arrow notched and ready to fire.

Sesshomaru stared back at her, undaunted, unafraid. It would take many more priestesses than this, and much more powerful ones than her, to take him down. It was foolish for her to think for even a moment that she had any power over him. He calmly walked over to Ah-Un and retrieved the hide that contained InuYasha's head. He grabbed the white mane and held it out away from him, walking to stand so that Kikyo had a clear shot at him. He said nothing, only held her mate's head out so that she could see his face had turned a ghastly pale color, his lips were gray, his eyes were dry and shriveling, and his white pointy dog ears were covered in flies. When he was sure she'd taken this in, he smirked at her.

She had come ready to purify the taiyokai. She had prepared a special arrow for him, counting on his arrogance to allow her to get a clear straight shot at him, but then he had pulled her beloved's head out of an animal skin and her resolve was shaken at the brutal scene. "Sesshomaru!" her voice called out, cracking under the strain of her sadness. "You will pay for what you've done!" Kikyo stood in the forest, bow drawn and arrow at the ready. He heard her bowstring sing with release. He threw the severed head into the arrow's trajectory, piercing InuYasha's forehead all the way through to the back of his head. As soon as the head had been released, Sesshomaru threw Tokijin like a dart, its blade stabbing her right in the valley of her clay breasts, just before she had a chance to reach for another arrow, and she sagged to the ground. Then within a breath, he had the energy whip out, hacking away her body into bursts of clay and ashes.

"This Sesshomaru will do no such thing, miko. Take your place by my half brother's side in hell." He jerked Tokijin from her and simply smashed what was left of her into dust in a single, mighty stroke. He retrieved InuYasha's head from the ground, now skewered through by his mate's sacred arrow. Such a nice trophy for the palace. He would have to find a place to put it where Rin wouldn't see it, but he would definitely be putting this out for all to see. This was a testament to his strength, to his brutality, to his name sake. Even if he had some help in InuYasha's death, in the end, he did make sure the bastard died. He wondered vaguely how his father was reacting to meeting his favorite son long before he should have. The taiyokai chuckled lightly, to himself of course. _Fuck 'em both._

He wrapped his trophy back up and sat it in it's place on Ah-Un's back once more, resumed his position by Rin and simply stroked her raven hair as she slept, enjoying her peaceful innocence.

"This Sesshomaru thinks you are the least waste of air on this planet, Rin." He knew she couldn't hear him, but he wanted to tell her anyway. He listened to the steady slow beat of sleeping heart, her even breathing, and fell into a meditative state. Soon Jaken returned and he went about fixing a meal for Rin, and then they were back on the road, with Rin none the wiser of the miko's death only a hundred feet from where she laid sleeping.

* * *

Koga assured the monk that he would return with Kagome in a few days to prove he'd marked and mated her the proper way, and to bind her to her human traditions and marry her in front of her family. Kagome threw what few possessions she had into her worn and faded yellow backpack and made another tearful farewell to those she cared deeply for, and then climbed on Koga's back and made their way to his den in the east.

As soon as she settled herself on his back he heard InuYasha's voice in his head again. _'She might be on your back, but she's thinkin' of_ me, _and how_ I _used to carry this very same way. You'll never replace me in her heart, Koga.'_

He grumbled low in his chest out of irritation, a vibration that she felt very clearly, and then felt herself blush because of how it had affected her. Koga scented her arousal at that, making him forget all about InuYasha's grating tone, and said, "Oh, so you liked that huh?"

"I dunno, maybe," as she buried her face into his back.

He laughed loudly as he ran at lightning fast speed. "Don't worry Kags, I will make sure once we get back to the den you are well satisfied."

' _I know every place on her you wolf-shit bastard. I have built and grown the fire she feels for you now. Every thing she does to you tonight will have been perfected on my cock first.'_

Gods, why was he speaking him to him? _'Leave me alone you dead asshole! Go talk to someone who gives a shit about you, eh?'_ Koga thought back at the voice.

' _I'm not goin' anywhere until you fucking tell her what you did to me!'_

' _Then I guess we better buddy up quick, cause that ain't ever happenin' pal.'_

' _Keh… Afraid she'll leave ya? Can't build a love based on lies ya know. I know first hand remember?'_

' _Shut up, InuYasha.'_ Koga grumbled again, pleasantly surprised to hear a squeak as Kagome's scent spiked a little. He slowed to a stop and just stood and growled. Quietly, almost silently, his demon ears picked up her sweet voice over his rumbling purr, "Kooooogaaaaaa…" and he felt Kagome's hips grind over his backbone where her heated core sat.

' _Hey asshole, keep runnin' your yap, she's getting' off when I growl at ya!'_ he thought at InuYasha's gurgly voice.

' _Fuck you, Koga._ '

He growled a little louder, the vibrations a little stronger, and then the both of them could wait no longer, and their first time took place just inside a nearby rock outcropping, lined with sweet grasses and short little wildflowers. Koga neatly extracted her from her simple cotton wrappings, gently guided her to into submission to her new alpha on all fours, and then Koga stood on his knees behind her. His rough hands gently slapped one of her perfect little ass cheeks just to see it jiggle. With soft and gentle caresses to Kagome's back he gently glided into her, growling as he went, knowing she could feel him rumbling inside of her. A breathy cry of his name escaped her pretty mouth as he gently pushed her head to the ground, bringing her experienced little pussy into a better angle. Koga felt himself going feral at the smell of her heated juices that covered his cock with every stroke he made inside of her. So far this was all going better than he could ever have hoped. Kagome was no slouch in the love making department. Her countless encounters with InuYasha at least made her experienced enough to know what Koga would like, so she gripped him intermittently as she pushed back into him, making him go deep, deep down inside and running his swollen and rosy mushroomed head over her most inner pleasure spot.

"Kogaaaa, yessssssss , that feels sooo goooooood…" she whispered below him, her face in her kimono. Koga's eyes were bleeding through to red, his mouth lengthening into that more like a wolf muzzle, nails growing to claws, fangs becoming more pronounced as his demon wanted to come forth and mark Kagome's creamy skin. He growled louder, that rumbling returning to the very heart of where her ache was situated. He was thrumming inside of her, nearly sending her over the edge. He pounded into her harder, leaned forward and said in a husky, unknown voice "Almost time… don't move…" Now Koga was moving faster than even the hanyou ever had with her, almost at a superhuman speed. And the depth… she had that wonderful 'oh-my-god-I-can-feel-him-in-my-stomach!' feeling as he continued running deliciously over that raised place inside her over and over and over again. The demon in Koga's body felt her silky toned muscles begin to convulse against his aching flesh, and then she clamped down and then rippled with that first of many orgasms he would give her, calling his name in a clear scream that rang out across the valley. He pumped into her dripping split about five more times and then howled her nickname in a voice so thunderous she came a second time from the vibration coming from his chest. In an instant he slumped over her back and bit painfully down into her shoulder, gripping and shaking her a little with those sharp teeth and fangs, settling deep within her satisfied flesh. His razor tipped feral tongue zipped across the bite, carving delicate kanji into her soft and tender skin. Once he'd come off his high and the demon retreated, he helped his new mate to sit on her knees, licking gently at the mark he'd left on her.

"Koga… My mate," Kagome said as Koga pulled her down to her side, as he was still fully knotted inside her. He licked her throat to just under her chin, a very affectionate kiss in the wolf world.

"Kags, my precious mate. Asihiteru…." The two of them drifted into a spent sleep together as they waited to become able to disengage from each other's heated loins. The late summer wind blew gently, and for the moment, all was right with the world.

 


	4. Jump in the Fire

Sesshomaru, Rin and Jaken were only halfway to the Palace of the Western Lands when they decided to stop and camp for the night. The day had been hot and humid and nearly shadeless as they walked through miles of deserted farmland. There was only one bit of trouble on their journey today and that had happened when a group of scavengers had leapt out of an abandoned and badly damaged teahouse, which Sesshomaru took care of with a steady and sure crack of the energy whip, and then obliterated the shoddy structure in a grand display with his Dragon Strike. He sent Jaken away for firewood and food once they'd settled on an area on the outer edge of a cool forest, and he once again pulled Rin from her throne atop Ah-Un and into his lap.

"Sesshomaru-sama, when we get to the palace will Rin have a room of her own?" she asked as she braided a chunk of his hair. She was quietly humming to herself as he answered her.

"Rin will have more than one room of her own. Rin will have two rooms for sure, and maybe three." Sesshomaru was pleased to see her taking an interest in staying at his castle. When he'd first mentioned it to her she seemed to think it would separate her from him. He reassured her though that no such thing would happen, and to disregard anything Jaken told her.

Rin ceased her braiding for a moment. She could barely remember what her home had been like before the bandits came. She knew they lived in a small one room hut, just barely large enough for the two adults, one child and two infants that it housed. Rin wondered what she would do with all that space…

"Sesshomaru-sama, Rin thinks you're being too generous. She is only one child and doesn't need so many rooms all to herself." She dropped this second braid and braided a third hunk, intending to weave the three plaited sections of hair into one large one.

Sesshomaru felt his heart swell inside his chest. How was it that a girl who could have anything she asked of him be so humble and unselfish? How was it that he was so fortunate to find her, a diamond among filth in her human race? How cruel was it that the gods had seen to it that he find her in such a horrible state, and that he would come to absolutely fall in love with everything about her? The feared Aristocratic Assassin was mesmerized and completely and deeply in love with his little Rin. True, she was far too young to be anything other than his ward, and he respected that and kept his boundaries to her very clear. But the ice cold taiyokai had made quite sure that she knew from the beginning that when she was old enough, he was going to marry her. Rin had no idea of her station because of her age. It amazed him how she always still saw herself as the orphaned peasant girl he'd saved in the woods. It was moments like this when she showed him how worthy of a mate she would grow to be that made him stop and appreciate the kindness the fates had bestowed upon him. "Rin." His face never broke its stoic gaze. Rin's small hands stopped their weaving as he looked down at her.

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"Aishiteru."

The little girl smiled brilliantly, stood and threw her arms around his neck. "Aishiteru Sesshomaru-sama! It has been a long time since you told Rin such, but she knows Sesshomaru-sama does." She kissed him on the lips, a chaste and innocent kiss of a young girl, complete with the 'muah!' sound effect. The few kisses he'd allowed her to give him were like fine sake, sweet and stinging. It made him long for the day when he could kiss her as his Lady and treat her as his mate. He turned from her gapped smile and scented the wind.

"Take the braids out, Jaken approaches." Rin's small hands made quick work of separating the plaits she'd made back into luxuriant and soft strands of opalescent hair. By the time Jaken dropped the first load of firewood Sesshomaru was up and away from her, their tenderness together a secret shared between them alone.

"I couldn't carry anymore my Lord, I shall return with food in a few moments," the little green imp said as he turned back into the edge of the forest. Sesshomaru laid his mokomoko out for the little girl to lay on.

"Rest until your meal is ready." He crouched beside her and stroked her hair, occasionally running his knuckle along her full cheek. Rin only fell asleep so easily under Sesshomaru's touch, it was the only thing that made Jaken suspicious of what went on between the two of them. When he stood guard over her while Sesshomaru was away from camp, the kid was practically an insomniac. But if Jaken had to go rush to grab an extra arm load of firewood and was only gone three minutes, he'd return to find her passed out like she'd been bespelled to sleep. Such was the scene when he returned with a freshly slaughtered hare. He'd been gone only long enough to kill it and bring it back, maybe five minutes. The bubbly child that was smiling and awake when he left was now snoring quietly in Sesshomaru's fluffy pelt.

"Wish you'd show me how you do that," he grumbled under his breath, only to be the recipient of a boot to the back, flying through the air, sailing to an unknown destination, only to be forced to walk back, in pain.

Sesshomaru cleaned and spitted the hare himself, and only because he'd do anything for his little princess. He heard her stomach grumbling for the last five miles of their excursion and he intended to feed her well before tucking her in for the night. As he was pulling the hide from the animal, he suddenly felt Tenseiga pulsate against his hip.

' _Son…'_

His father's voice… His father's fang and his father's voice were reverberating through his body.

' _Son…'_ It was more than a whisper but hardly a direct voice. What was happening?

' _Son, I saw what you did.'_

' _What I did?'_ he thought.

' _Tenseiga cried out for you to save him… You did not.'_

Was he referring to InuYasha? That was the last time Tenseiga had thumped like that. _'Ah, the half breed. No I did not. He acted quite dishonorably against a human, a decent human, one not unlike your precious Izayoi. I doubt you would have let him live either.'_

' _Tenseiga knows when a life is not worth saving. It doesn't always come to life at your side just because a person has died. If it speaks to you, you must listen. You failed to listen, son.'_

The fire that Jaken had started took on a warm healthy glow, and the roasting meat began to brown nicely in its heated embrace.

' _In any case father, it is too late. InuYasha's body has been gone for nearly a month. You want me to resurrect his head? He will only live for a moment before he dies again. If it will appease you I will do this; I will bear his annoyance for one moment longer.'_

' _You fool. Who are you to judge? Who are you to say one person's life is worth more than another's? Who are you to decide that the life of a human child is worth more than that of your own blood?'_

"Rin is worth more than ten InuYashas, father. No, she is worth more than twenty of that insolent mongrel, and I won't listen to you degrade her in such a way." Sesshomaru's voice was filled with anger, and his strong body was trembling with it. The voice fell silent, Tenseiga stilled at his side… A gentle breeze rustled through the grass and Rin rolled lightly in her sleep, sighing contentedly.

' _How like me you have become… Listen well Sesshomaru. Because of your transgression, Tenseiga will take its revenge upon you. You will draw it sometime intending to save someone, and will not work. It will fail you once as you have failed it once. When you and your sword are even on these counts it will go back to the way it always has been. Should you refuse to heed its call again… I cannot say what will happen. I would not tempt fate twice.'_

Tenseiga shivered once then was still once more, neither it nor InuTaisho's voice daring to haunt Sesshomaru for the rest of the night. He woke his darling Rin, fought against the urge to pull her into his lap and feed her himself, wanting to be close to her after the disturbing run in with his father. Jaken had made his way back in the time that Sesshomaru was arguing with his inner voices, and to act… so sensitively… in front of his vassal was unacceptable. He settled himself not far from her though, back leaned against a tree, watching as she ate as daintily as she could, considering she was eating a hare from a stick. Then she rose and did her necessary in the bushes, came back and went back to sleep, stomach full and warm.

He thought about what his father said while he was watching her sleeping face make subtle movements as she dreamed. He knew Tenseiga could only resurrect someone only one time, and he had used it on both Jaken and Rin. Past that he couldn't think of anyone worth saving, and so he put the thought out of his mind. Once he was certain Jaken was out for the night, he went and curled up next to Rin. Sesshomaru was never more at peace than he was like this. Nothing else mattered so long as he was surrounded by Rin's scent and the sound of her calm heart. She stirred a little in her sleep, rolling to face Sesshomaru. She sighed happily, and then whispered, "Aishiteru, Sesshomaru. Itsumo…" and then she went back to her soft snoring.

Sesshomaru could not help the single tear that rolled from his eye. He let it drop in her hair, a gift he'd never given another single person. He lightly kissed her temple and then settled into a deep meditative state, making sure he was up before dawn, up before Jaken, up before anyone knew how weak this little human girl made him.

* * *

When Kagome awoke she was hot. Her hair was sweaty, and she felt something heavy draped over her. Blinking away the sleep from her eyes she saw she was buried under about five heavy pelts with a roaring fire nearby. She sat up, pulling her hair up off her neck and fanning herself. "Koga?" she called, wondering what in the heck had prompted the winter appropriate heating. He walked in with a hunk of roasted boar on a stick so she could eat it without burning her fingers.

"Mornin' my mate," he beamed at her. She could see the sweat rolling off him as well.

"Why is it so hot in here?" she asked as she peeled off the pelts and then wrapped a yukata around her. She took the meat from him as he sat down beside her.

"Well, I've never had a human girl spend the night with me before, and I wasn't sure how cold you would get if I were away from you, so I wanted to make sure you were good and warm before I went to kill us some breakfast."

Kagome smiled, realizing he just didn't know that the fact was one pelt and no fire would have been more than sufficient. She told him so and then giggled at his sour face. "It's no big deal Koga, you didn't know, and the thought was very sweet." He leaned over and kissed her sweetly on the lips.

"Today you get to meet the whole pack again. Then we're going to get you into some armor like mine, and then," he tilted his head back and scratched under his chin while running down the day's itinerary, "I'll probably bring you back here and see how fast I can strip it off, then I'll try to get you pregnant, then we'll get dressed again for the Integration Ceremony, and then we'll eat and party and then I'll bring you back here, strip you down and try to impregnate you again and then we can sleep in tomorrow." He looked back at her, blue eyes dancing with excitement.

"Wow, so much in only a few hours." Kagome took a bite of the meat she had, and to her surprise, it was actually pretty good. "Hey, who cooked?"

"Ginta did, said he asked Sango how you liked it when he and Hakkaku were out last night hunting. You like it?"

"Yeah, he did an awesome job! I'll have to thank him for caring enough to find out."

"I told you Kags," he said as he put his arm around her, "my whole pack will love and honor you as I do. You are a treasure, and we will always treat you as such." He kissed her cheek, greasy with pork fat. "When you get done I'll wash your face for you."

"Hey Koga, what's an Integration Ceremony?"

He was trying to smother some of the flames by throwing handfuls of dirt onto the fire. "See, you're not an official part of the pack yet. This is something we do when we take in refugee wolves from clans that have been wiped out or when clans combine, so that we all get to know each other's scent and calls."

"Calls?" she asked as she took another greedy bite.

"Howls, growls, snarls, ya know, our language." Koga had managed to douse about half of the fire out and the cave's natural coolness began to slowly seep back in. "Say like you're out and you get lost in the forest, we'll teach you the howl for that. Say if not only are you lost but you're in trouble, we'll teach you that one too. And since you're my mate you're gonna have to know the growls and grunts to put the rest of the pack in their place. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes there are squabbles, and you have every right as I do to remind them of their status in the pack." Kagome nodded, then reached into her yellow bag and pulled out a small white compact. "What's that?" Koga asked.

She swallowed the bite she had been chewing, then answered, "Birth control pills."

"What do they do?" Koga asked as he came closer to see. She opened it up for him to show him how it worked and explained she was taking them while she was with InuYasha because she didn't want to have his child if he wouldn't mate her.

"They're from my era, but since I can't get back, and I'm now mated and marked, I don't really need them anymore." She tossed the pack in the fire and watched the plastic thing melt and then become part of the molten center of flames. "It might take a little time, but I will eventually get pregnant. Sometimes the pills don't wear off for a while, and sometimes they wear off right away. I don't know what to expect there, I've never been off of them. I feel like I deceived you by not telling you right away about them, I'm sorry Koga."

He thought about telling her right then, spilling his guts and being completely open with her about his part in InuYasha's murder. Then he saw her bright blue eyes grin up at him and he lost his nerve, lost it among the reflection of the fire in her pupils. She said something about having a lot of fun while trying for a baby, and then he was on her, flinging her breakfast into the fire and slicing through her thin yukata. He made love to her facing her this time, slow and gentle, only becoming more heated towards the end as he ground to his end. Once he'd seen to his release he moved downward and tasted her velvety folds, and then he caught that scent… He stopped and only looked at what he was feasting upon. His sensitive nose wasn't positive, but he was fairly sure he was scenting a new life…

Kagome sat up, panting as she peered at him from above, "Why'd you stop?"

"I smell something in there…"

Instantly red, she thought he was talking about _her._ She thought he was trying to tell her in a nice way she stunk too bad for him to finish. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry Koga, I should have bathed after I woke up. This is so embarrassing…"

"No, you smell divine. It's… Well, I'm not for sure, but I'm almost positive…" He looked up at her through his sweaty bangs, "I think there's a life in your womb."

"What?" She wasn't sure how she should feel... Was this a good thing or a bad thing? Oh wow, she really _really_ wanted her mama right now...

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's… a cub in there. Already a cub in your belly." Koga's face was locked in a half smile.

Kagome couldn't figure how that could be. Had she missed a pill? It was too late to look now, the compact and all had melted minutes ago. And didn't it take about two to three days for an egg to fertilize? But then again, this was a _demon_ she'd mated with, a _full_ demon, maybe his seed was stronger than the pill's effect, and maybe it was faster than human semen. Then a warm satisfaction settled in her… She was going to be a mother.

"Koga! We're gonna have a baby!"

"Cub, Kags. We're gonna have a cub." Then his shocked face spread into the brightest most sunshine filled smile she'd ever seen on his face ever. "Kags! We're gonna have a cub!"

There were warm embraces, tender kisses, then he hauled her to her feet, both of them having forgotten about their unfinished morning romp, running off to tell the pack their good news.

InuYasha snickered in Koga's head, but the wolf ignored him.

* * *

Later that night, as Koga and Kagome were celebrating their recent milestones together with their pack, things at Kaede's were a little tense.

"Shippo, it's really for the best that you go."

"But I don't wanna!" The kitsune was sobbing his poor little heart out. Miroku and Sango had decided that Shippo should be sent to a kitsune training ground off to the northeast. "InuYasha's gone, Kagome's gone, now I'll be gone from you two. I won't have anyone left!" His little green eyes were red and puffy, and he just couldn't seem to wipe his face enough to keep it dry.

"Listen Shippo, we only want you to go so you can get really good at your skills. With InuYasha gone we need your demon protection, and they'll be able to help you build those skills. It will only be until you're good and strong." Miroku patted the little fox demon on the head. "It's not going to be as bad as you're making it out to be." The little guy was quiet for a while, knowing they were going to make him go one way or another. Finally he gave up on trying to get out of it and sat himself in Sango's lap, grudgingly agreeing to go, and then he fell into a fitful and unrestful sleep. Sango laid him gently on the futon next to Kirara and gestured to Miroku to follow her.

They walked out to the bridge that crossed the river on the edge of Edo, then sat and dangled their legs over the edge, looking very much like Koga and Kagome the day before. "So what are you going to do Miroku?"

He looked up at the stars, then looked at their reflections on the water. "I dunno, Sango. I never thought we'd be separating like this. I have to be honest, I don't like it one bit." He swung his legs back and forth like a kid. "This just doesn't feel good to me."

"I have to admit, I agree with you. I donp't like the idea of seperating either." She could feel his lecherous gaze upon her, taking what she said out of context, as usual. "I only mean that even though it's almost been a month, I still wish InuYasha was here. And now Kagome's gone too… We're so divided now, I don't know how we'll ever be able to defeat Naraku."

"And if we can't defeat him, I can't break my kazaana's curse. And if I can't do that… I can't marry you." His voice was so sad. At first Sango rolled her eyes. Miroku was a good actor when he wanted to be. But when she looked over at him and there were streaks running from the bottoms of his eyes, she took him a little more seriously.

"Miroku?" She'd never seen him cry like that before. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head and looked into his lap. "You probably wouldn't believe me if I said it anyway."

She furrowed her brow at him. "Tell me anyhow."

Sango heard him swallow and then sigh. "I can't help it Sango. I know you don't believe me, but you are the only woman I've ever declared a true love for. Yes, I asked many women to bear my children, but I've never asked anyone but you to marry me." Miroku looked at the moon and took a shuddering breath. "And you're right about us being too divided… and knowing that we won't be able to defeat that bastard as we are right now. And then... then I won't be able to... " He was overcome by sorrow, and he choked a little on the next sentence, "I feel like my heart is breaking inside at the thought of not being able to take you for my own and become the good husband I'm supposed to be instead of the wandering lecher I have always been."

Sango's cheeks blushed. She really was special to him after all. He really did love her as an ordinary woman, and she wasn't just a comrade or the woman he fought alongside. In his mind, she was already his, he just couldn't take his vows until he was certain his curse had been broken. "Miroku… I didn't know that's how you felt." She put her hand on top of his.

"Sango, please don't leave me, I'm no good without you." Miroku was damn near desperately pleading with her.

"Houshi, you know I've got to find my brother."

"I'll go with you." He didn't hesitate to offer to go with her. He'd always supported her in trying to find Kohaku, and it appeared the dissolution of their merry band did not stop his good intentions.

Sango's mouth slacked for a moment, astonished at how quickly he sacrificed everything he had planned for himself for her. If that was not devotion, she didn't know what was. "Miroku, if you want to come I won't stop you."

The monk was so relieved that he just slumped forward and shuddered with his silent tears. Sango moved to comfort him and he said, "If you come any closer I can't be held responsible for my actions."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I swear to Buddha I'm fighting with everything in me to not touch you or try to kiss you. Unless you want me to do that, stay back." He felt her move away, and he cried all the harder. The woman he wanted so bad, the one he wanted above all others, seemed to not be interested in him at all. Not even a drop of anything from her until after they were married is what she'd told him. Not one kiss, not one unpunished stray hand at her bottom, nothing. It was a sweet hell he endured though. To be near her was enough, but to be without her _and_ to be without her touch was fucking insanity.

Sango giggled and said, "Aww, the hell with it," and she scooted close to him, close enough that their sides were touching, and he sat up from his bent over position to find her beautiful face mere inches from his.

"Sango, if you hit me I'm gonna shove you in the water," he said as he leaned in to finally taste those soft sweet lips he'd dreamt of.

"I promise I won't. But don't go overboard alright?" said she as she closed the distance between them.

"Deal," Miroku whispered against her parted mouth. She sighed contentedly as he settled a hand on her hip, pulling her closer to him. He only kissed the outside of her mouth, respecting her wishes to keep it simple. That didn't stop him from lightly nibbling on her lip or working his mouth against her though, testing her limits.

' _Gods, this is good… why did I wait so long?'_ she thought as she felt him pulling away from her. He took his hand off her hip and wrapped it around her shoulder and placed his forehead on hers. "Thank you Sango. You'll never know how much that meant to me."

"Who said I was done?" She had an evil grin on her face.

"I thought you said not to go overboard?" as a mischievous smile crept over him.

"I lied."


	5. Anesthesia: Pulling Teeth

Kaede gave him a tight hug, and then Miroku and Sango lifted his tiny body onto Kirara, making for the wolf den in the east. The only demand that the kitsune had made was that he would get to see Kagome before he left for the as yet unknown amount of time he would be spending at the training grounds. As the three of them zipped across the sunny skies, the mood was bittersweet. Miroku's staff sat in front of Sango, holding her safely to him, although she now sat nestled between his knees a little closer than before. You couldn't wedge a sutra between them, and for once, Sango didn't give a damn. She'd gleaned a new appreciation of her intended yesterday when she allowed him a simple and surprisingly gentlemanly kiss, only to follow it up with something a little more passionate, and before the night was over they were practically pawing at each other as they sat love drunk on the bridge in the moonlight.

Shippo on the other hand was completely sullen and silent the whole way to Kagome's new home. He'd always talked about someday going to the kitsune grounds, but he wasn't ready to part from his family yet, and he was certain that something would happen while he was away and he wouldn't be able to find any of his loved ones again. The only comforting thing was that if something _did_ happen, he would be powerful enough to exact his revenge on his own, should it come to that. So they flew on, and before long the den was in sight.

Those of the wolf pack that were standing guard howled at their arrival, and Koga looked in the direction of the sound, just as he was helping Kagome tie on the last piece of her new armor. "Do you recognize that one?" he asked, referring to the call her pack was making. Her eyes closed in thought.

"Someone's come, neutral threat?"

He smiled at her and then kissed her cheek. "Close Kags, but they are no threat. That's a hard one to distinguish though, so good job!" He stood back from her and admired her form. "The furs suit you. You're absolutely gorgeous."

Kagome had been a little hesitant to wear them at first, only because she wasn't used to wearing clothing that seemed so primitive. But once she had it on, it felt as if it were meant for her to wear these skins. She wore a mottled gray and black fur around her waist, one that would be low enough to accommodate her belly when it began to swell. Above that was a hard leather sort of short top that was cured to a dark red color and somehow embroidered with a single detailed sakura blossom in expensive silver thread. Koga had explained that once her belly grew too large for this she would wear a littering short kosode instead, one that she could wear while she was pregnant and afterwards as she nursed the cub until she'd lost enough of the baby weight to get back into her new armored chest piece. She also wore leg guards like Koga's in the same gray and black as was at her waist, there were a set of simple hard leather cuffs that held a swath of fabric over her hands, and then he'd had a simple hammered silver tiara made for her with a single ruby set in the middle. He'd braided her hair himself into twin tails at the back of her head. When her family landed where the pack had gathered, they barely recognized her.

"Kagome?" Shippo asked as he scented her. "Is that really you?"

She smiled as Koga gently pushed her forward. He'd always managed to make her feel so good about herself in the month that they'd spent together. He had told her many times how beautiful she was and how unashamed she should be of herself. Kagome strode to her family with an air of self confidence she seemed to either not have or kept buried because of InuYasha's insane ego.

"Welcome to our den, friends." Kagome was speaking on behalf of the pack, her first official duty she'd had to perform. She first looked to Koga, who nodded at her, then looked back at the pack and growled, but she had said _'They are to cower before you'_ instead of _'They are always welcome here'_. Koga corrected her, quietly growling in her ear, and then she growled the correct one loudly. Koga beamed.

Sango and Miroku looked at their "little sister" as if she'd lost her mind, growling and snarling like that. She sounded so wild and feral that it couldn't possibly be the same girl that left them yesterday. But when she turned back to them she was giggling, seemingly her old self again. "Sorry, I only found out yesterday I'd have to learn how to speak wolf." With the explanation for her actions now clear, she declared that a feast commence, putting Ginta in charge of cooking the meat, and then she made one last formal statement before dismissing the clan. "My family is your family, and you will guard their lives as you guard my own." The pack howled their agreement and then Koga bid them to set about his mate's tasks for them.

"Now, that's done," she said she closed the distance between her family and embraced them all in turn, even the nekomata. "I wasn't expecting you to come here, I was going to wait until we returned to be married to tell you… I'm already pregnant." Her face looked to be ready to explode with joy.

"That didn't take long," Miroku said, eyes wide and voice full of surprise.

"Strong seed," Koga said as he gazed as his mate. He faintly heard the mutt chuckle. He'd have to ask that bastard what was so funny when he had a chance to be alone with him.

"Wow, Kagome. Umm, congratulations!" Sango hugged the girl in her stiff armor, wondering briefly if there was something more than walking and talking going on in those woods when they would go on their little walks. She didn't press it though, it was none of her damn business, just like it was none of Kagome's damn business if the demon slayer had plans of her own for her monk after they dropped the kitsune off at his new school.

"I don't know how hanyou births go, but if it's anything like a human birth, it will be born in the early spring. And so far I haven't had any sickness or anything, so maybe it's a good sign for an easy pregnancy and a healthy cub." Kagome looked down at her abdomen where her belly would begin to pooch out in a few months. "I can't wait," she said, smiling as Koga's hand slid to where she was looking. "I can't either." With a kiss he left her to spend some time alone with her family and to help Ginta get his cooking fire going. Once he was sure the situation was under control, he left for a tree top for some privacy with the undead little punk that had taken up residency in his mind.

' _Hey mutt, why do you keep laughing at every mention of my cub?'_

Now InuYasha flat out laughed. _'Ohhh, no reason!'_ Sarcastic as always, even in death.

' _Dammit, tell me what the hell's goin' on!'_

' _What are you gonna do about it, fucker? As if you had the balls to tell Kagome what you did in order to free me from this stupid prison…'_

' _You know something about my cub and I want to know what it is!'_

Silence. Funny how when he was alive the bastard didn't know how to shut his fuckin' mouth. Now when someone was asking him to speak it seemed he had nothing to say.

Finally the gurgling hanyou's voice spoke, _'Look inside her mouth Koga. She's missing two teeth in the back. Ask her if she took any medicine from her era to help with the pain and infection.'_

' _What's that got to do with anything?'_

' _Oh I'm not gonna come right out and tell you, I'm enjoying your squirming too much.'_ He chuckled. _'Ya know, I can make all of this end Koga. You tell her what you did to me and I'll end it all. But if you wait too long, I won't be able to do anything concerning the… cub. I'm willing to help out, only for Kagome's sake though, but only if you confess to her. You tell her you murdered me in my fucking sleep and I'll be gone like dust in the wind.'_

' _I don't know how many times I have to tell you, that is NOT going to HAPPEN!'_

' _Keh, like I give a shit. I can stay or go, it don't make no difference to me. Just know that now your little secret is going to affect the life in your mate's womb. When you're ready to show mercy to that unborn life, you'll tell her. Until then I'll be in the shadows, heckling when I can.'_

' _Damn you InuYasha…'_

* * *

The inside of the mountain was nearly pitch black. It was silent and heavy and domineering and colossal. In the seeping darkness his low and ominous laughter echoed from every surface in the otherwise soundless cavern. It echoed and rumbled from every angular rock and crevice and soon the entire space was simply full of his joyless amusement.

"What's so funny?" Kagura asked. Gods she hated this stupid mountain. She hated this stupid plan and he hated this stupid Naraku. _Just give me my damn heart back and let me be as the wind. I give a fuck about human and demon affairs, I only want to be the wind…_

"Kanna, show your sister what you just showed to me." The little albino girl with the dead black eyes turned so Kagura could gaze into her mirror. What she saw was something of an unknown thing to her eyes. She watched as Sesshomaru walked with his human girl away from their camp, watched as he knelt down and let her kiss him on his lips, and then how he wilted under her touch as she brushed his hair. He'd even smiled at something she said, and then something he said made he stop her brushing and throw her arms around his neck in childlike adoration. The feared taiyokai of the west was on his knees, submitting to a human child… _Wow… just wow…_

"Sesshomaru intends to try to defeat me. How can he defeat someone as powerful as myself when he cannot overcome the charm of an underage human female?" Naraku chuckled again. "Oh how long to absorb his power into my body. Once I have absorbed him I shall be completely indestructible." His squirming jumbled body lay in a tangle of tentacles, legs, and other assorted fleshy things under him, writhing as if he were constantly fidgeting, restless. But he was still weak. He needed more time. Time was a good thing to have when you needed to make a plan.

"That girl… That child is the key to him. It is obvious that she is his intended mate. If there were a way to capture her, he would come for her, and then I could draw him into my body…"

"Are you sure you want to tempt fate, Naraku?" Kagura asked disinterestedly. "He's been known to surprise his enemies in the past you know."

"I am aware of this, Kagura," he said as he shot a slithering tentacle at her, winding her up near his face. "It is why we must plan this carefully. And you know what helps me plan, right?" His voice was dripping with lust.

Kagura's breath began to quicken. "P-please… don't… Anything but that…"

The tentacle holding her separated into two, one unrolled to grasp her hands together and the other bound her ankles. "Now, now Kagura… You want me to give you your heart back, don't you? I think you should comply with my every demand if you want that to happen."

The tentacles forced and bent her into a submissive position as new appendages appeared and slashed her clothing from her body. Her spider scar on her back seemed to be glowing red with her fear… "Naraku, please have mercy…"

Another set of tentacles shot out, pulling apart her posterior as a fourth set of them seemed to lap at her nether regions. "Kagura. It's no use fighting me, I will still have you in the end." He shot a tentacle into her mouth and nearly choked her to death on it, and then settled into a rough yet steady rhythm as tears streamed from her red eyes. There were tentacles everywhere… there was one at each breast, tightly coiled around the fleshy mounds and the ends of them stimulating her taught nipples. One slid itself into her abused sex while another danced relentlessly on top of her silken bud, thrumming in its ministrations to her. He plunged one into her puckered hole at her rear, slapped her jiggling cheeks with yet more of the long boneless fleshy limbs he had an endless supply of. He plundered the wind witches body as if she were a toy made only for him. Naraku terrorized her flesh until she involuntarily shattered against him, her honey rolling down the green skin of the appendage that was inside her, tears shining on her face from the entire ordeal.

He unwound her and set her roughly on the mass of soft flesh at his feet. He'd been more tender than he usually was with her, and for that she was grateful. More often than not she was flung from his grasp like a used cloth. "Dress. Then remove yourself from my sight you wind whore." He brought the one dripping with her essence to his mouth and licked it from himself, savoring it as a delicacy, and only then making any kind of sign that she had satisfied him, seeming to release a gasp as the flavor hit his tongue. _I swear by everything that is holy to me, I shall see you dead…_ she thought as she gathered the scraps of her kimono that was nearly finished putting itself back together. ' _I will have my revenge one day…_ ' although she had no idea how she would do it.

* * *

Shippo had been released into the care of his sensei, a larger and older kitsune that assured Miroku and Sango that the boy would learn every available skill in a sure and swift manner, which would allow for him to resume his mission with his human family in the fastest way possible. The instructor was very kind and very sympathetic to the little fox demon, and he allowed him to bid a final farewell to his friends in private.

"Shippo, I have every confidence in you that you'll rise to the top of your class with no trouble," Miroku said as he ruffled the little guy's hair. "We'll be thinking about you." Shippo wiped at his eyes and said nothing, only embraced Miroku as best he could with his tiny arms.

Sango picked him up and snuggled her face to his, a single tear escaping her full lashes. "Pay close attention to everything your master tells you. Practice hard and you'll be able to rejoin us soon, okay?" He nodded, covering her the front of her slayer's tunic in a fresh release of salty droplets. "Remember, this isn't goodbye. It's only until next time. We'll come to visit in about a week, alright?" He nodded again, and she kissed his forehead and sat him on the ground. Kirara came to him in her kitten form and licked his face, and he hugged her tightly as she mewed.

"Come Shippo, let me show you to your new quarters." The sensei turned and regarded the boy's human family. "He has a lot of spirit in him, he shall progress quickly. Have a safe journey monk, slayer." He walked with Shippo back inside the school, slid the door shut, and left Sango and Miroku in the yard.

"And so our mission begins in earnest," he said as he turned away from the building. He noticed she hadn't yet moved and turned to look at her. "Sango? Aren't we leaving to search for Kohaku now?"

Sango turned to him, but walked past him in a rush, walking down the steps and out into the forest at the edge of the grounds. Miroku was chasing behind her. He'd called her name over and over but she refused to stop, and so he simply followed along. Finally she slowed and sat on a boulder, let Hiraikotsu fall to the ground with a thump and wept into her hands. No sooner had she begun this emotional release when Miroku found her, and he wrapped his arms around her as she fell apart.

"Shh, Sango. It's not for forever my dear, only until he gets to be powerful enough to watch over himself. You know we're not going to leave him here indefinitely." He smoothed his ungloved hand down her ponytail over and over, feeling the silky strands of her hair slip easily between his fingers.

"It just… It just feels so permanent. I mean…" she sniffled and wiped at her nose, "It just feels like we're losing him like we lost InuYasha and Kagome." Miroku held her tighter and let her sobs come.

"You know we're not losing him, and as for Kagome, Koga's already said if she wants to come with us after the cub has been born he will accompany her, and maybe by then Shippo will be ready, and on top of that you know anywhere Koga goes Ginta and Hakkaku follow. And if we're fortunate to find Kohaku and sever his tie with Naraku somehow… It will have all been worth it." Miroku kissed her tear stained cheek.

Sango sighed, feeling that her crying jag was coming to an end. "You're always so positive Miroku. It's always so comforting to hear what you have to say." She turned her face to his and smiled. He put his forehead against hers and just held her.

"How long do you think it's going to be before Naraku shows himself again?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know. Part of me wishes he'd just stay gone, but that wouldn't help me break this curse any faster." Fucking Kazaana. Ruining everything he'd ever planned for his life. "I hope now though that he stays gone long enough for us to regroup."

Sango felt a smile creep across her face. "I have some regrouping of my own I'd like to do." Miroku, who'd made a hobby of studying women, knew her tone of voice was indicating that his betrothed was speaking of some other kind of rendezvous entirely different from the one he was talking about.

"Oh?" he said in a surprised voice. "What kind of regrouping did you have in mind?"

"One that starts like this…" and she tilted her face to one side and kissed him. Velvety soft lips caressed each other before parting, allowing the eager tongues within the heated teeth lined caverns to dance and twist with one another. His gloved hand's fingers traced the outline of her jaw and chin. He pulled back from her, panting and gasping for breath.

"Sango, this is more torture than before," he groaned. He kissed her on her lips but did not let himself back in her mouth. "Everything you allow me to have only makes me want more of you."

"So have a little more," she said as she unbuttoned her collar and the three latches on her tunic that closed the angled seam that ran from her throat to her armpit. She bared her throat to him, something that would have set Sesshomaru, Koga, or any other canine over the edge with lust. Her gesture was not lost on Miroku though, but still he whined in protest.

"Don't you see? I'll never be completely satisfied Sango. Not until I can have _all_ of you. Every part of you that has laid dormant in those leathers or in your linens. All these sweet tastes of you… It just makes me want to devour you whole all the more." He'd stepped back from her, face flushed with excitement.

"What if maybe…" She looked at his nervously through her bangs, "What if maybe I wanted you to devour me whole? What would you say?"

"Sango you'd only have to ask me once on that matter and it would be over and done with. But it's something I think you should consider carefully before rushing into. Don't you want to have something to look forward to on our wedding night?"

Sango stepped toward him. "Then marry me now. Don't wait for the curse to be broken."

"Sango…"

"Why the hesitation? If we love each other so much and want to be together so badly, then why wait? Death is going to separate us eventually. What's the difference if it happens now or later? Marry me tonight!"

"Sango, I won't bring a child into a world that has Naraku in it."

"So we won't! There are ways around that!"

"Sango." He turned to her and touched her cheek. "We'll discuss it when you're not so upset. For now let's drop it. I won't let you make a hasty decision just because of how heated you are right now. We've got to keep ourselves calm and our thoughts collected when it comes to this."

She sighed and dropped the subject. He was right and she admired his discretion with her, and it was then that she knew she'd made the right choice in agreeing to one day be his wife. "I'm sorry Miroku. Just know that as dizzy as I make you, you make me twice as dizzy, I just wish I'd known sooner so I wouldn't have beaten the crap out of you for trying to introduce me to a sweet taste of it."

He kissed her firmly on the mouth and said, "Even though our group has divided, we have become closer. We should take our blessings with grace." He took her hand as Kirara transformed, helped her onto the flaming cat's back, and then sat behind her, close and tight as they now considered to be appropriate with his staff across her lap. "Let's go Kirara, back to Kaede's and then we'll look for Kohaku in the morning." Kirara nodded once and then sped back to Edo.

* * *

About a week later, Koga had come to a decision. He had to get to the bottom of this thing concerning his cub, and he thought the best way was to simply find out for himself if what the mongrel living in his brain had told him the truth.

"Mmmm Koga, that's nice, but really, I'm exhausted," she said as he lapped at her mating mark, a place that would grow in time to be her most erogenous zone. He rolled her to him and kissed her lips until she opened up for him, allowing him free run of her mouth with his talented tongue. But this was no ordinary kiss, Koga was on a mission. He was feeling around for those missing teeth. Finally finding the empty sockets he pulled away from her.

"You're missing some teeth Kags! Did that mutt let something happen to you!"

"What? No, I had an abscess, a really bad infection. It came from a bad cavity I had that was in between those two teeth, I had to have them pulled out." She regarded his fearful face. "It didn't hurt Koga, they put lots of medicine in there before the dentist pulled it. And then they gave me more medicine for the next week until it healed up."

"Hmm." He considered this very carefully. How was he going to ask her about the other medicine, the one that kept the babies away? Bluntly was best. He had to figure out what the mutt wouldn't tell him. "Didn't the baby pills make you not hurt?" _That's it, feign ignorance…_

"Oh no, that only worked for that purpose. It didn't have a pain reliever or an antibiotic in it." No sooner had she said the word antibiotic than did her mind freeze up. She remembered she'd been on the antibiotic only four days before InuYasha died. He had loved her twice while she was taking it. Didn't her doctor tell her that the birth control wouldn't work if she took an antibiotic? _Oh shit._

"Kags, you alright, you look like you're gonna be sick." Koga was now more perplexed than ever. Something she'd told him struck a memory somewhere… He could sense her nervousness, her fear… "Kags?" he asked her again, jarring her out of her thoughts.

"Oh, yes, sorry. Umm. Koga?" _Oh hell, how do I handle this? It certainly explains how come I had a life in there after only two times with Koga...  
_

"What is it mate?" His blue eyes were slitted; whatever was going on was about to be made clear.

"Umm, I don't know how to tell you this…"

"Spit it out." Koga was getting angry.

"The… the antibiotics I was on… I didn't remember until just now, I didn't even remember it at the time I was taking it…" She was sweating. "That medicine that cured my infection might have made the baby pills ineffective when I took it…"

InuYasha's laughter tittered. ' _You fuckin' mutt… I swear to the gods that I'm just about to give in to your fucking' request just to get your damned voice out of my head!'_

"What's that supposed to mean?" He was oh so angry… But he refused to take it out on her. It wasn't her fault.

"Gods forgive me… Koga, There may be a chance that… the cub is a pup."

InuYasha _howled_ with laughter, Koga could picture the silver headed freak curled up on his side, laughing until tears were rolling down his face, pounding the ground with his fist, squealing with the irony of it all. ' _HAAA! You fuckin' piece of wolf-shit! You may have killed me, but what about my pup! Oh yes, Koga._ MY _seed found purchase in_ YOUR _mate's womb! Heeheheheee! An Inu heir to the Eastern wolf tribe!_

"That's it InuYasha, I'm telling her everything, best pack your shit and move on." He leveled his gaze at Kagome. "Tonight is the night we clear the air about everything Kagome." He dropped her new name in favor for her old one, indicating the seriousness of the situation. "First I need a moment, see, InuYasha's spirit keeps talking to me and he says he won't go away until I tell you what I did, but I have to ask him a question first." She nodded as her brow furrowed, not sure what to make of this claim that InuYasha was living in his head.

' _Alright InuYasha, I'm gonna tell her, but you tell me what you can do concerning your offspring.'_

The hanyou's voice lost it's gurgle. _'I'll cause her to miscarry, and then her womb will be empty and ready for you to start over.'_

' _But that child is half hers, maybe she don't want to give it up!'_ How noble of him to allow her to keep such a cur for herself, only because it was partially hers.

' _Trust me, she doesn't want it.'_

' _You don't know that! I'm gonna ask her…'_

"Kagome, if the child was Inu, and you had a choice, would you keep it or lose it?"

She looked at him seriously. "What do you mean? You want to end its life? Like, terminate the pregnancy?"

Koga closed his eyes and sighed. "No, if you were to lose it on your own, would you be happy or sad?"

She hadn't thought about that. If this child was Inu, there was no way the pack would accept it. Even as high ranking as she was in the pack, it could cause trouble. But at the same time, the thought of being a mother filled her with such joy, and she couldn't hold the pup's lineage against him… When the pup was created she was still very much in love with InuYasha, even though she was irritated that he had shown no interest in marking her. The pup deserved to be loved just like any other child, regardless of its heritage.

"I think I'd be sad. It'd be the only thing left of InuYasha, a chance for his line to continue even though he's gone." She looked Koga in the eye. "It wasn't the pup's fault."

' _Let her keep it. I'll step down and join the monk and the slayer as an outcast with my mate.'_

' _What?'_ InuYasha did not expect the wolf to go so easy on his son.

' _She is obviously going to remain attached to you for the rest of her life, mutt. You were her first love and she sees this as a way to keep your memory alive. I'll swallow my pride for her.'_

' _Koga, she carries your son too, it's just a little behind mine is all. But if she carries them both, yours will be born a little early. I don't know how it will affect his health…'_

Kagome watched as her mate's face contorted and contracted as if her were having a conversation without speaking. Now his eyes watered, but he didn't cry.

' _Leave 'em both. Let her have her sons…'_

' _Koga, can you tell her I'm sorry for me? Tell her it was never my intention to hurt her the way I did. Maybe you had every right to do what you did after all.'_

' _I'll tell her, InuYasha. You're going now right?'_

' _As soon as I hear your confession I'm outta here. You have my word.'_

' _Wait, what do you want to call him? What do you want to call your son?'_

' _InuKei. I think she'll like that.'_

'" _Lucky dog?" Yeah, I'm sure she'll like that… Whatever, I'll tell her. Now get ready to get the fuck out of my head.'_

' _One last thing.'_

' _Gods, what now?'_

' _I'm sorry. You really do love her, and I should not have stood in your way.'_

"Kagome… Sesshomaru didn't kill InuYasha." _'Yeah… I'm sorry too, mutt.'_

_  
_

_**"I did."** _


	6. Metal Militia

Months passed.

Koga's confession hit Kagome square in the chest. She had asked him not to kill the hanyou who'd broken her heart, and even though he explained he didn't go after him until after he had said goodbye to her, and that he did it because InuYasha had hurt her, and her pain hurt _him_ , she was still almost uncontrollably angry with him. He had shut her out of her own time, caused her to lose her family and be stuck against her will in an era she no longer wished to be a part of. The pain of what she had lost nearly overshadowed all she had gained. She had a mate who truly loved her, despite ignoring her direct order not to kill her jerk ex-lover. She carried a pup and a cub within her womb, something that was a rarity among humans but quite common among canines, and in spite of her anger towards Koga, she delighted in that her sons born of opposing rivals would be brothers and would get along as their fathers should have. She had a pack that loved and defended her as if she'd been raised among them (at least for the moment), and she still had the undying support of her feudal family, Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kaede. Kagome could not have imagined that she would carry InuYasha's pup; her pregnancy by him was completely by accident. What Koga did may have been on impulse, but it was definitely no accident. Kagome left him for about two weeks, staying and talking with her comrades at Kaede's concerning what should be done about the situation. Koga only came once to check on her, unlike his daily vigil he kept with her before she mated him. He brought her a fresh boar and some lilies, and told her to come home when she was ready. She knew he thought about her often, as every thought he had about her caused her mark to ache. It was this ache that made her find the courage to forgive him and realize his cruel actions, while completely unnecessary, were because he loved her and felt InuYasha had tarnished her honor.

When Kagome returned to the den they spent the next two days in his cave, where he relayed everything that InuYasha had told him to say to her, told her the gory details (at her request) of his sin, Sesshomaru's limited involvement in the whole thing… She slept beside him but did not allow him to touch her. It would be a while before she was ready for that again. The only thing she allowed him to do was lap at his mating mark, mostly because it soothed the ache that he was causing there with his thoughts, and it was quite calming to her frazzled nerves.

Summer faded into fall, her belly began to grow, and one lazy afternoon she felt one of her children move. She was certain it was the pup, only because he was older, but Koga placed his hand on her swollen abdomen anyway, saying that it would be unfair to her if he didn't share in this with her. Koga told Kagome that InuYasha had offered to force the pup out naturally, and that was why Koga had asked her that odd question that day he confessed to her. "You said the kid should be loved regardless of his heritage and that it wasn't his fault that he was going to be born, and I was the one who told the mutt to leave him. I couldn't deny you your son just because of how I felt about its father."

Kagome was moved by this. Koga had killed InuYasha in cold blood, but after finding out that his mate was pregnant by the half-breed, he had shown mercy to the only offspring he would have. That was the first night they laid together since the day he spilled his guts to her concerning the only time he'd ever used his katana. She had forgiven him, seeing how it was apparent that even the one he murdered had forgiven him in the end. She resumed her place at his side and they moved on.

Sesshomaru mounted InuYasha's head on a golden gate arch, had it placed within a sealed crystal case. It was out of Rin's sight and told all who came to his palace that he was not someone to be toyed with. Word soon spread of how he destroyed the dead priestess Kikyo. When Kagome caught wind of this, she had Koga send for him. She wanted to thank him in person.

Sesshomaru landed at Koga's cave, ignoring formality and doing as he pleased. Kagome expected no less of him. Even though these were Koga's territories, and even though they were in the east, it all still fell under the umbrella of Sesshomaru's lands. Sesshomaru didn't have to be formal in place that was already his.

The taiyokai tossed a pendant to Koga. "This Sesshomaru has heard that you have taken his half-brother's miko as your own. It is a gift for her, to apologize for her unwarranted treatment at the hands of this Sesshomaru's unwanted relative."

It was a silver and gold chain, very delicate and stunning. On it was an emerald that had been finely cut and faceted into the shape of a fang. "Because of Koga's assistance in InuYasha's demise, this Sesshomaru is offering his protection to you as a token of his gratitude."

"Sesshomaru-sama, do you know yet of the pup I carry within me?" Kagome asked, knowing that he would be upset had she beat around the bush.

"This Sesshomaru could smell both of your sons upon his arrival."

"Will you accept the pup as a member of your house and protect him as well?"

Sesshomaru glared at her. She felt herself tremble despite Koga's presence at her back. "It is obvious you do not know this Sesshomaru as well as I had hoped. Your pup may be of InuYasha's spoiled seed, but he still is part of this one's ancestral bloodline. Both of your sons shall know safety under this Sesshomaru's hand."

Kagome sighed audibly, causing her to slump forward a bit in relief. "Domo arrigato Sesshomaru-sama," she said and she bowed her head. Koga's hand slid across the littering kosode and rubbed her taut tummy. "They're moving quite a bit today…" he said quietly to himself, but the taiyokai heard this and then observed it for himself.

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed as he watched her stomach move from the movements her children made inside. "May this Sesshomaru experience this… motion?"

"Oh! Yes of course, come feel them, Oji-sama!" She had called him Uncle. With an unsure clawed hand, he reached out and ghosted his hand to the surface of the kosode, barely touching her. He was completely surprised when she lifted his hand and moved it to where he could better feel the action within her, and pressed him down hard enough so he could feel it. His eyes flew open as the first bump against his hand was felt, then a flutter as the child shuffled under the surface of her flesh, and then a direct kick that caused Kagome to chuckle, reminding him of his adorable Rin's sweet tittering. _'When she is old enough, she will be round like this. One day Rin will bear my pups. The next time I feel of a woman's pregnant body it will be hers, and the pups will be mine…'_ he thought to himself. Nearly lost in his fantasy, he had closed his eyes as the boys inside fought for space in their mother's body. Soon, the motions stopped, his eyes opened, and he asked, "They have ceased, are they alright?"

Kagome nodded. "They sleep sometimes. Right now they are so active because they starting to run out of room." She smiled down at herself. "Sorry I'm not bigger boys!"

Having had his fill of emotional bonding, he turned to Koga. "The one called Kikyo is no more. She attempted to make this Sesshomaru pay for his part in the hanyou's death. The miko ended up shooting her sacred arrow right through his severed head." Neither Koga nor Kagome winced at that. It was almost expected that something so brutal would happen if Sesshomaru was involved. "Tokijin and this Sesshomaru took care of the rest." He spoke as if it were an insect he'd swatted. Kagome didn't mind. As much as she wanted Koga to spare InuYasha's life she gave no care to Kikyo's. She did not feel the anger and animosity that had been associated with InuYasha's death.

"Yes, we heard." She spoke now with all the aristocratic air associated with her rank in the pack, her posture signaling her change from personal to wolf tribe royalty. "It was I who sent for you Sesshomaru-sama. I wanted to thank you personally."

Those evil honey eyes grinned in his stoic face. The change in this girl was very evident, and the pride of her new self was advertised in the smug smirk Koga had on his face as he regarded her in the firelight of their domicile.

"This Sesshomaru would have killed her for his own pleasure for her insolent behavior in any case, but he is glad that you appreciate the actions of this one so well." His translucent hair took on an orange glow from the fire as the air of camaraderie settled around them.

"Sesshomaru, we'd be honored if you would stay for a feast. Allow me to offer you every luxury available to my people," Koga said as he bared his right arm to him. The Lord of the Western Lands gripped his wrist in agreement as Kagome strode out of the cave and spoke in ookami to her pack, ordering that fresh meat be brought in.

"Your mate speaks your tongue, but she is human. How does she do this?" Sesshomaru asked with great curiosity.

"I have taken great pains to teach her. Her position in the pack requires it." Koga's entire body exuded pride. It was quite uncommon for a human to be able to pick up the subtle intonations required to distinguish one growl from the next. Thank goodness the girl wasn't born tone deaf.

"Hn." Already he had his brain working overtime, wondering how would be able to teach Rin how to speak inu. She loved games, perhaps he could make a game of their lessons? That would be something to ponder later, maybe when he laid beside her at the palace as she slept.

The pack wasted no time in bringing back plenty of freshly killed boars rabbits and deer. Sesshomaru and Koga came out of the cave and Koga howled for his pack's attention. "Our Lord has come to share our meal with us. It is an honor that he has graced us with his presence. Give him the honor he is owed." The entire pack, even the swollen Kagome, knelt and bowed to him. Sesshomaru dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

"Let us eat," he said in his stony voice. And eat they did. Kagome and Koga sat at the highest ledge of the grand waterfall, from which they could see the entire pack, have fresh cold water to drink, and were above the sound of the water crashing on the rocks, allowing them to speak at a comfortable volume but allowing them the privacy of royalty. Kagome had stopped eating cooked meat, as her carnivorous sons inside her craved it fresh and bloody. This too amused Sesshomaru, as his Rin had always gagged when she saw him eating. He wondered briefly if he would have the pleasure of dining with her when she was pregnant… _'I've got to get a hold of my thoughts, that won't happen for at least four more years yet,'_ he thought to himself.

"Sesshomaru-sama, have you made any progress concerning Naraku?" Kagome asked as she ate savagely from a plump rabbit, blood dripping from her fingers.

"This one has not cared to look for him for some time. He's been enjoying the time relaxing with his intended." Sesshomaru involuntarily snarled as he ripped a hunk of bloody flesh from a boar flank, shredding it easily with his razor sharp teeth.

"It's none of my business but, may I ask what it is about the child that draws you so to her?" Kagome was the one who asked this, but Koga was interested in his answer as well, and they both stopped their feasting to look at him with expectant eyes.

"This Sesshomaru does not care for humans, apart from my Rin and you, miko. The two of you seem to be above all others of your kind, making you special; a treasure among refuse. My Rin cares not for my station, my wealth, my power… She cares for me alone; she treasures the time we're able to spend with each other, she stands by my side even when I must treat her coldly in front of Jaken… She is everything I am not, and she fills in the places where I am lacking in my soul."

Kagome's heart both melted for the Aristocratic Assassin and hardened at the same time; it was obvious he cared for this little girl very deeply, but she wondered if he had ever done anything… inappropriate with her. The question was on the tip of her tongue when he continued, "I sometimes find myself giddy with anticipation of her moon blood. Then I will be able to take her as my Lady, and love her as I want to love her." They noticed his lack of imperial speech, noticed that he seemed to be, and just barely, smiling at the thought of her in her wedding robes.

Koga grinned. "I can see how thoughts of Naraku would pale in comparison."

"Very much so, Koga." It was the first time Sesshomaru had referred to him by name. "Of course if word of this were ever to get out this Sesshomaru would have to show you the same respect as I have of my arrogant half-brother. The love of the girl is this one's most guarded secret. I trust you will not share this information with another soul, living or dead." Both of them nodded, saying that they would only speak of such things with the three present, and Rin if she so desired, but no one else. Sesshomaru seemed satisfied with their word to him and continued with his meal. This was an important day of alliance between them. The Eastern and Western lands were now solidly united under the blood of shared meat and the promise of ridding the world of Naraku, and the shared secret of a cold taiyokai's warm love for a little human girl.

* * *

It had been nearly ten weeks since she had told him she didn't want to wait until Naraku was dead to marry him. Three days after they left the kitsune training grounds, and with no sign of Kohaku anywhere, they were only a few hours journey away from Mushin's temple, and Miroku had asked his mentor, teacher, and close friend to marry them that night. They spent their first night in the same futon in a long forgotten guest room at the opposite end of the temple complex, where every daydream they'd ever had about each other was fully realized. They now belonged to one another completely and entirely, and for eternity.

As promised they went to visit Shippo almost weekly. He was progressing steadily, doing well in his magic studies and learning some basic swordsmanship. His mood had improved drastically as he made new friends and found a love for his new activities. His sensei reported that he was doing quite well for not having any real training before and that he was progressing just as he should with little or no trouble at all. "I expect it will take another year before he is ready to leave though," the sensei said as he poured tea for the humans in his main room. "He is becoming quite skilled with his magic but loses focus easily. I fear that in a desperate situation, he might not be able to 'keep it together', as he so often says." The newlywed couple laughed quietly at that, remembering all the times Shippo had gone into battle with them, scared out of his mind, chanting to himself, 'I gotta keep it together! I gotta keep it together!'

"So he is progressing at a normal pace then. I am happy that he in a better mood than when we left him. He was quite adamant about not coming." Sango remembered how she had cried at the thought of forcing him to stay.

"Yes, he speaks of a inu-hanyou quite often that used to be in your traveling group. Says he was quite gifted with the legendary sword Tetsusaiga."

"Yes that's true. InuYasha was deadly with his weapon." Miroku had a fleeting thought in the back of his mind of how he missed hearing InuYasha's battle cry of "WIND SCAR!"

"I understand his brother murdered him over the sword. Is that true?"

"Well," Sango began, "it's true that Sesshomaru was indeed jealous of InuYasha's favor with their father, but I don't think that's why he was murdered. In fact-"

"It was over another matter entirely, Sesshomaru despised InuYasha's half-demon heritage, and really it had nothing to do with the sword he'd been entrusted with," Miroku cut her off, and as soon as the sensei turned to get more tea he winked at her, the international symbol, for 'we'll talk about this later'.

When they finally left, she hissed as they took off on Kirara's back, "Why'd you lie to him like that!"

"Because Sango, to mention anything further would have bruised Kagome's reputation, and given her position in her pack it would have been devastating. You can't have the Lady of the Eastern Territories being portrayed as being a common whore before she assumed her title. Sometimes things are better left unsaid. Let Sesshomaru claim InuYasha's death for his own." After that Sango gave no more thought to it. InuYasha was still dead, regardless of who claimed or didn't claim to have done it.

They continued to look for Kohaku, signs of Naraku, demons to slay or spirits to exorcize so they could make some money or trade their services to stay indoors as they traveled. They made a mental map of every hot spring they came across so they could exploit them for their own pleasures. They ate well, they slept well for the most part, and they made the most of their journey together.

It was nearly harvest time, the days were shorter, the nights colder and longer. Kohaku's trail had gone completely cold as well, leaving Sango and Miroku to wonder if they shouldn't go back to Edo and wait out the coming winter. Surely Naraku planned to wait until his strength returned, and as silly as it sounded for one as powerful as him to wait on something as trivial as the weather, as a hanyou he was still susceptible to colds just like a human. They doubted he would risk any regained strength in fighting off a cold just for the sake of completing his goals. They decided as they cuddled in the afterglow of their love at one of their the hot springs that it would be best to go back to Edo, feeling that as long as Naraku was holed up for the winter, Kohaku was probably close with him and at least safe from the elements. When they arrived back at Kaede's four days later, they were completely shocked as to who they found there.

"Sango, Miroku, you've come back!" Kagome squealed as she walked towards them, arms open wide and belly sticking out farther than they'd remembered. Koga came out next, followed by Ginta and Hakkaku, and lastly, Sesshomaru with Rin and Jaken following neatly behind. Sango's hand went immediately to Hiraikotsu, automatically assuming Sesshomaru to be an enemy. Kagome's pack instincts took over. "Sango, stand down, he is no threat to us." She had to fight not to growl the command at her.

"Since when?" she demanded, full of apprehension and a nervousness that was easy to understand.

"Since he offered to take InuYasha's son into the House of the West and protect the Eastern Territories." Miroku gaped. Sango stood down. "He is now an ally of the highest kind," Kagome continued. Silence reigned between them all, until Rin's tiny voice broke it carefully.

"Hoshi-sama," Rin began, "Do you really have a Kazaana in your hand?" Jaken was immediately shushing her and telling her to keep her mouth shut while the adults settled the uneasiness between them. Sesshomaru glared down at the imp, but said nothing. Kagome and Koga inwardly ached for him, but understood there was nothing he could do until she became of marrying age. Rin seemed to know though, and she did as her Lord and future mate had instructed her to: disregard anything the toad says.

Miroku looked at the girl uncomfortably for a moment, then his eyes softened to her. "Yes, I do. Unfortunately, if I show it to you, you all will get sucked in, and I would not want that at all." His eyes glanced at Sesshomaru, who only nodded.

"Oh. Maybe you can show me some other time, when you can turn away from me." Even as small as she was, she understood the meaning of not turning your back to people you were not sure of. He nodded to her. She wandered over to Sango, unafraid of her as she took Kagome's hand. "May I touch your weapon, Sango-sama?"

Kagome smiled at Sango. "Sorry, she's just really curious. I told her a lot about the both of you." Sango slowly moved her giant bone boomerang so that it was in front of her, allowing the girl to feel of its smooth surface, its sharp edge, the leather strapping and the silk tassels. "Is it heavy?" she asked as she noticed her reflection in the waning daylight.

"It weighs more than Kagome, but not more than Koga." The little girl awed at this. She put one arm behind her back as a display of her innocent desire to merely touch the taijiya's leather armor. She felt of the armored pieces at her elbows and knees, gently fingered the handle of her short sword, looked approvingly at the embroidered sprig on her upper left shoulder… "That's pretty." Sango's face lost its anxious expression as she thanked the curious girl for the compliment. Having had her fill of the demon slayer, she moved her attention back to the monk.

"Kagome-sama says you love Sango-sama very much." as she touched the golden head of his monk's staff, jingling the rings slightly. Her chubby fingers ran over the center of the golden shape, feeling the points on the crescent moons and the bumpiness of the little spherical motif.

Miroku and Sango had not had a chance to share their marriage with Kagome yet, and so he made to cover his ears as he said, "Yes, that's why I married her." The pre-emptive covering proved to be quite effective as Kagome's shrieks of happiness cut through the air, causing all the canines to wince in pain. In fact, as if she were completely unglued, she actually hunkered down by Rin, and they both _howled_ in ookami in celebration and congratulations. This elicited a howl from the rest of the wolves, and for the first time since he was a child, Sesshomaru joined in with an inu howl of his own, louder and clearer than the wolf cries.

Rin stopped immediately, snapped her head back to face him in pure innocent amazement, listening carefully. She then howled as loudly as she could in inu, copying his intonation perfectly, even if it was an octave higher than her intended's cry. The wolf tribe ceased, allowing Sesshomaru and Rin to share a tender moment without actually letting on that that's what was happening. When they finally stopped, Sesshomaru said, "Koga, you are aware of this Sesshomaru's feelings in this matter. Feel free to speak on this one's behalf, Rin and I must discuss something." His gaze turned to the little girl. "Come." He turned and walked away from her, turning his back to Sango and Miroku in a show of trust that he would be safe from their attacks. He walked slowly away as Rin scrambled to her feet and fell in her place at his heel. They disappeared into the meadow as everyone else filed into Kaede's now cramped hut.

When they reached the well Sesshomaru picked her up and stood her on the edge of it, being sure to keep her from falling in. She was nearly at his eye level. "Tell me sweet one, do you want to learn the language of my kind?"

"Does Sesshomaru-sama wish for me to learn how to talk like Kagome talks with her pack?"

He nuzzled her cheek. "Kagome speaks ookami because that is what her pack speaks. I speak inu. It's a lot the same, but it is different. It would please me very much if you would like to learn, but only if you want to learn it. You may refuse me and I will not be angry."

She smiled at him. "Will you teach me?" she asked as she gently caressed the magenta stripes on his face.

"Yes. I will teach you all about inu ways. It will prepare you for when you become my mate." He kissed her little girl lips gently, not wanting to frighten her with any kind of affection she wasn't ready for, only wanting to let her know that she was still his special Rin.

"Rin hopes everyday for her moon blood, Sesshomaru-sama. Rin is in a hurry to grow up so she can be your Lady." _'So am I,'_ he thought to himself. She put her arms around him and buried her face in his mokomoko. "Rin wants to learn inu, so she can tell Sesshomaru-sama she loves him in front of Jaken."

Sesshomaru's heart was filled with love for the little girl and he smiled as he made a growling kind of sound. She looked up at him, thinking he was angry or had sensed something coming. He saw her fear and said, "It's the first thing you'll learn to say. It means 'I love you'. You try." He growled once more, slowly. She tilted her head and closed her eyes as she listened. As she had copied his celebratory howl nearly perfectly, she copied this sound as well. The taiyokai hoped his father could hear her from where he was in hell.

"I will teach you more in time. For now this is the most important of all. Say it to me often." As if to reiterate, he growled to her again, and she responded to him exactly. He kissed her again, the inu way, a long lick from her throat to her cheek. She giggled, squirming under the new sensation that obviously tickled her. "That's an inu kiss. I wouldn't do that in front of Jaken though. Our kisses will still be a secret little one."

She licked him in return, unintentionally stirring a fire in his loins. He pushed those feelings aside, attributing the sudden emotions to merely being able to share something with her that was close to his heart. He kissed her on her lips again, growled once more, waited for her response and then embraced her, bringing her off the well ledge. "Come, we should return before Jaken comes looking. And don't pay him any attention when he tells you not be curious about the monk and the demon slayer. He is afraid of both of them, but don't you be afraid of them."

They reached the doorway of the old woman's hut, and Miroku and Sango were listening intently to Koga, explaining that because of the pup that InuYasha had left in Kagome's womb, he decided to leave his territories as he had before in the capable hands of his second in command, an older wolf demon named Kenji. Sesshomaru sat on his knees as Rin sat cross legged next to him. Jaken seemed to be glaring at her, so she stuck her tongue out at him. Then she smiled up at Sesshomaru and growled her new sentiment for him. The wolf tribe looked up at her. Their growls were the same on this phrase. Kagome smiled as Sesshomaru growled the same back to his betrothed, and Jaken only looked at the both of them in wonder, the sound's meaning completely lost to him, as well as Kagome's feudal family.

After a long evening of negotiations, it was decided that Sango and Miroku would go with Sesshomaru and Koga to try and find Kohaku before the coldest part of winter set in. Ginta and Hakkaku would be in charge of protecting Kagome and Rin, with Jaken to be the go between as needed on Ah-Un. Kagome said she would teach Rin to read and write while they were gone. Afterward she spoke to Sesshomaru privately and asked that he tell her about inu customs for new wives, saying that it might be more comfortable for her to hear it from another female than from him. He agreed to sit down with her before they left in the morning and divulge his species' secrets to the young miko.

That night they all slept peacefully, all painfully unaware that somewhere in the center of a pitch black mountain, a hanyou of the spider kind sat watching them through a mirror, plotting and planning and scheming, readying to exploit all their tender weaknesses.


	7. Seek and Destroy

"C'mon, Ginta!" Rin said as she hurried through the door to Kaede's small hut. "We gotta get that stuff on the boil if we're gonna have stew by sundown!" Rin had become quite the cook's assistant in Sesshomaru's absence. She both learned and taught Ginta about human food, and they enjoyed their new friendship together. Ginta came in behind her with an armload of vegetables from Kaede's cellar in her shed. He and Rin sat down near the fire and began cutting them into stew chunks as she sang one of her little girl made up songs.

Kagome smiled as she turned over in her sleep, napping more and more as her pregnancy began to come to an end. It was now mid winter, and she would only have a few more weeks to go. Her dreams chased endlessly of Koga's return, of giving birth to her boys born of different fathers, of peace as Naraku and all associated with him fell away into memory. She saw happiness on the faces of her comrades, of her family, as the jewel was completed and then entrusted to her to make the right wish. Of course she knew what it was, it was simple all along. When the time came she would wish for the jewel to simply disappear, to go away and never return. And she would hold her children close to her as long her mortal life would allow, and she would be happy, at peace with her new surroundings.

Hakkaku gently shook her. "Sister? Hey sis, it's time to eat." She blinked her eyes open and saw his mohawk casting shadows in her direction and smiled. He said in ookami, "Eat now, cubs hungry too." She yipped an affirmative as she yawned and sat up.

"Help me, I need to go to the bushes please." Rin abandoned her post at the pot with Kaede's nod that she would take over stirring the stew. Rin and Kagome had become quite close in the time their yokai mates were gone. Rin gently pulled Kagome into a squat so she could easily stand, then helped her to squat outside. Her belly was so enormous now. She looked as if she were carrying a small toddler instead of two infant demons. She thanked Rin for her assistance as she waddled back into the hut holding Rin's hand.

"Kagome-sama, how much longer do you think it will be before the babies are born?" Rin put her ear to the pregnant belly before her, a look of love filled wonder growing on her small face.

"I think maybe two more months. Maybe sooner. I don't really know, Rin. I've never had a baby before, much less a cub and a pup."

"Do you think Sesshomaru-sama will let me have a pup one day?" Rin pulled away from her and looked her in the eye. "I know it won't be for a long time yet, but Rin really hopes he will let her have one. Just one if he doesn't want any more than that."

Kagome didn't know how to answer that, so she changed the subject. "Mmm, this smells so good Rin! Is this one of your recipes or did Ginta show you?"

The little girl beamed as she sniffed over the pot, "It's something we both came up with. He knows how to make the meat really good and I know how to make the vegetables really good, so we made it on our own. I hope it tastes as good as it smells!" Kaede smiled as she stirred the pot and offered the wooden spoon to her to taste her concoction.

"Oh! Oh this _is_ really good Ginta! You have to try it!" Ginta's nose scrunched on his face as he shook his head.

"No thanks, I'll hunt for myself later."

"But it's SOOOO good!" she protested.

"Not from my standpoint. I like my meat freshly killed, still moving if I can get it that way." He patted her head. "You know demons don't like cooked stuff."

Kagome laughed, "Unless it's ramen or wieners!" There was a pang that came with the memory of her "ninja food". The pang of remembering how much InuYasha had loved the ramen she brought, how much he loved the bento boxes she'd make and bring with her, how much her adopted son Shippo loved what he thought were baby squids but were really fancy cut wieners. Kagome was soon rustled out of her thoughts as Ginta and Hakkaku both laughed at that. A smile spread across her face, those memories of InuYasha still pained her from time to time, but they had eased considerably as she truly became part of Koga's pack. They knew she still ached for him now and then, but they made no issue of it, only letting nature and time take its course in her mind and spirit. Eventually she would be whole again. And she felt that even though she was way off base considering where she thought her future should have gone, being with Koga and the wolf tribe somehow just felt _right_.

Just as Kaede and Rin were scooping out stew to be passed around, Jaken burst through the door, having just come back from meeting with Sesshomaru and Koga. The little Kappa had been gone for nearly two weeks. Either Sesshomaru and Koga had gone much further than Kagome and the others thought they would go in search of Naraku and Kohaku, or something had happened.

"Kagome-sama," the imp said as he bowed to her, the highest ranking person in the room. "The others are five days travel from here, nearly as far south as Japan goes. They have found him."

"Who? Kohaku or Naraku?" she asked, concern growing in her tone.

"Both."

The only sound was the bubbling stew, the crackling fire and Kagome's rumbling stomach. Silence reigned among the group. Kaede broke it, "What have they decided to do about it?"

Jaken looked at the floor as he held on to his staff for support. "My Lord said that they will attempt to get Kohaku first, to have him on our side could prove to be very effective in taking down Naraku. The wind witch has left him scrawled notes that indicate her willingness to assist too. The only thing that concerns he and Koga is how to break Naraku's spell over the boy so that he can't be controlled any longer."

They all knew that in order to properly do that, Kohaku's shard of the Sacred Jewel would have to be removed from his body. If that happened… Kohaku would die immediately. This was an outcome none of them desired, least of all Sango. There simply had to be another way around all this.

Kagome's stomach rumbled again. "Jaken, please come and warm yourself and have some stew. We'll have to think on this matter as we eat." The imp agreed, not minding cooked food at all, and sat himself close to the fire with a full bowl of chunky goodness.

Kagome's mating mark began to ache, and she knew her mate and husband was thinking of her, worrying about her, wishing he was by her side watching his cub grow inside of her. She rubbed at it absently as she nearly slurped the stew down, its warmth soothing her from the inside out. She wondered if he felt anything when she thought of him, if he ached somewhere on his body when she wished his arms were around her, that his hands were tenderly rubbing the tight skin of her abdomen, feeling her sons move inside of her. Kagome missed him very much, more than she ever thought possible. The ache in her mark surged to almost unbearable, and she winced as her hand flew back to her shoulder, suddenly filled with a feeling of love and protection and that incessant ache at her mark.

"He heard you," Ginta said as took her bowl and refilled it for her.

"How do you know?" she asked quietly.

Ginta looked to be sure no one was watching him, then he pulled the fur vest he wore down a bit and showed his own mating mark to her… and it bore Hakkaku's kanji in it.

"I just know."

Kagome wondered how they'd managed to keep it a secret from Koga, but at the moment was too busy blushing at the thought of her two "brothers"… being together… alone…

"Send him a direct thought, he'll know. You'll know when he knows." Ginta was smiling at her, despite her rosy face. "Just be mindful to not do it when you know he is busy. You can tell when he's busy right?"

She nodded, it felt like a buzzing, light but definitely there, whenever his mind was occupied with other things. "Yes. He might be in battle or discussing strategy with the others. I must never interrupt those important times."

"Never send him a thought directly unless you feel that ache." Ginta handed her the bowl back and patted her arm. "He aches for you too, sis." His odd confession was quickly forgotten as he smiled warmly at her, putting her mind at ease, and then she and Koga had their first truly intimate conversation that only they could hear.

* * *

Sesshomaru regarded this new pack carefully. The two humans in their party had nestled themselves side by side under a blanket next to a roaring fire, eating slowly at more tasteless fish. They were close to the water, and the wind that was gusting made it quite cold where they'd decided to camp for the night, and so Miroku and Sango had huddled together for warmth, trying as best as they could to shut the never ending wind out of their minds as they tried to have something to eat and then fall asleep in each other's arms.

Koga seemed to be unbothered by temperatures, like himself. It mattered not how cold or hot it got, they were always comfortable, sweating only with effort and frustration, not because of climate. He sat on a log, appearing to be deep in thought, smiling occasionally, his face twitching constantly as if he were having a conversation. Sesshomaru could bear this odd behavior no longer, not when they were so close to finally nailing that son of a bitch Naraku. He turned toward the wolf prince. "Koga, are you ill?"

Koga's face stilled as he opened his eyes, looking perturbed as he recognized Sesshomaru's stony baritone voice. "No."

"You are acting strangely this night. This Sesshomaru only worries that you may not be able to fight when the time comes." The Lord of the West returned his gaze to the sea, thinking of his father, and what he had said regarding Tenseiga's revenge upon him, wondering when it would happen, who the sword would allow to die…

"Sesshomaru, you know very little of our species' mating practices." The wolf stood and walked to his friend, his ally, his Lord. "A mating mark is not just a public symbol of the bond between a demon and his mate, it is a gateway to each other's soul. She knows what I am thinking, why I'm thinking it and when, and I know the same things for her. It is a visible and physical sign but it's also an invisible connection, one that cannot be broken by distance or time or even death. That's why InuYasha never marked her. He didn't want her to know how he felt for that other priestess, couldn't share his innermost self with her. He only wanted to use her body as a way to sate what he couldn't have with Kikyo." His eyes looked out at the churning gray waves and remarked quietly, " _That_ is why I murdered him."

"And to think this Sesshomaru would have killed him for something he couldn't help. Your reason for taking his life was much more honorable. This one is glad he only assisted in his death."

"You know what's funny? Little bastard started talking to me in my mind, telling me he wasn't going to go away until I confessed to Kags that it was me and not you who killed his punk ass. When I finally did and he told me that she carried both of our sons, I refused his offer for him to cause her to lose the pup because of how she felt about having it. He actually forgave me for murdering him. He actually said I was right to do what I did." He chuckled, "It took his death for him to understand just how much I love that human girl."

"Hn." Sesshomaru continued to gaze across the pounding surf. "This one wonders what would happen if he marked his Rin. She is still quite young, and could not completely taken until she is ripe, but this one wonders what would happen if he marked her as his own now and merely waited for her maturity…" Sesshomaru did not admit he was completely clueless about demon mating practices, and he didn't exactly ask Koga any questions concerning the matter, but Koga understood he was fishing for answers.

"Her aging would slow dramatically. When you bite her, you take in her blood and you inject a bit of your own into her. Your blood is what will keep her from aging so quickly. It's also what creates the connection between you." Koga remembered the taste of his and Kagome's blood mixing in his mouth when he marked her that sunny summer evening on the side of the road. "If you mark her now, she would be nearly impervious to sickness or disease, she would heal from physical wounds much faster, you'd share the connection with her as I share with my Kags. But you might have to wait another fifty years or more before she will ripen. Depending on how fast or slow she ages in her new form, she may have to wait for another hundred years. If you can wait for another three or four, I would advise that before marking her." Sesshomaru nodded. He would only mark her before then if it was a dire necessity, something in order to save her life.

Koga clapped him on the shoulder. "I suggest you get some rest my friend. Tomorrow is going to be a big day indeed if we're to meet with Kagura and try to get Kohaku." He turned to resume his place at the log when Sesshomaru stopped him.

"Koga wait." The wolf turned. Without his formal speech, he said, "I am the only one who can use Tetsusaiga as it should be used. Thank the gods Totosai was able to fashion this special glove from InuYasha's fire rat robe for my only hand. It is useless to carry three swords when I can only use one, and I have a feeling my father's fangs will need to be used together. I can think of no one more honorable than you to carry it. Please, take Tenseiga. Take it and use it when the time comes." He pulled the sheath and all from his left hip and handed it reverently to Koga. Koga, at a loss for words, fell to his knees before his Lord.

"Lord Sesshomaru, I will wield it as you command. I am not worthy of such a weapon, and I express my true gratitude for you having bestowed the duty of carrying it to me." He bowed low, showing him all the respect Sesshomaru's position deemed necessary.

"Rise friend. I trust you with my life, which is worth more than a sword. Besides, my father would have been proud that you felt such duty and honor to a human woman as to save her from his bastard son. He would have approved of this gift." And as he said these words, he heard his father's growl of approval. He also heard InuYasha's snickering laugh as he made some inane comment about Sesshomaru's ability to wield Testsusaiga. Another growl from InuTaisho and the hanyou was silent, leaving behind the sense that Sesshomaru had finally bested InuYasha in his father's eyes, even if it was only concerning the ownership of Tenseiga.

' _Son, you have made me and Tenseiga very proud.'_

Koga rose. He slipped the scabbard into his sash and then noticed the little red tie that fell out from under the edge of his left bracer. He pulled it out, sniffed of it longingly, kissed it once, then tied it around the handle. It fluttered in the wind like a scarlet flag and Sesshomaru smiled. _'Yes, father should be quite proud. Koga has someone to protect._ He made no move to display it, but he knew it was there: a blue ribbon that Rin had tied in her hair for a while, until she had forgotten it at some bathing place or another, and he had it lying next to his demon heart, tied to the inside of his juban. _'How I miss you Rin…'_

His father's voice broke his thoughts once more. _'Tenseiga's curse has been broken Sesshomaru. As long as Koga wields it, it will always resurrect for him. However, if you are to grasp it, the curse remains.'_

Sesshomaru nodded and proceeded to tell Koga that if Tenseiga ever shivered against him, to draw it at once and obey the sword's command, no matter how silly he may think it is. "You do not control the sword, Koga. You are merely its body. You will do as it commands you." Koga looked down at it, expecting it do something. "Relax, you will know when it speaks to you. Now, may I ask a small favor?"

"Yes, my Lord," Koga replied, obviously still very moved by this show of trust and honor.

"Please tell Kagome to inform my Rin… Tell her to tell Rin I miss her." Koga smiled as he closed his eyes. His face broke into a look of surprise and then he laughed. "Why do you laugh, wolf?" anger creeping into his tone.

"Aww, she's so sweet, Sesshomaru!" Koga actually felt a tear well up in his eye, moved by what the little girl had done. "Kagome focused on her reply so I could hear it for myself. She howled for you in inu!"

Sesshomaru couldn't have stopped if he'd wanted to. He felt his youki whipping up around him as he sprinted down the beach a little ways, going feral and then finally transforming into his dog form, enormous and dominating the entire strand he stood on. He took in an audibly loud breath, and then cut loose with an inu howl of his own, nearly deafening to his companions. Every person between him and Rin was stirred from their activities, looking to the south as the Lord of the Western Lands howled his love for his betrothed across the wilderness, loud enough that even from hundreds of miles away, she could hear him, albeit faintly. She smiled. Her Lord had heard her, and she and likely half of Japan had heard him.

And so did Naraku, and the hanyou trembled in the dark.

* * *

"Kagura, where are we going?" the boy asked, frightened, as usual.

"We're getting the hell out of this dump before he has a chance to realize we're gone." They were flying high on her feather, sailing through the wind following the sound of that inu howl, knowing it was Sesshomaru. She was supposed to meet him in the morning, sneaking out as Naraku slept, but the sound of that bone chilling howl had distracted him enough that they left early. "Our service to that mish-mash of demon parts is going to end really, really soon. We will both be free once more."

"Free…" Kohaku said, both excited and afraid of what that meant. Free to not hurt anyone else ever again, but also free to remember those fuzzy memories that seemed to hurt so bad, and that was when they were foggy at best. He was afraid how much worse they would hurt when they were clear.

"Free as the wind, kid. Free as the wind." Kagura smiled to herself. She couldn't convince Kanna to come with them, but she had convinced her to break the mirror. They were now fighting evenly. Well, as evenly as they could, seeing how powerful Naraku had grown with his considerable time to rest and plan, and the fact that he now had in his possession all but three shards of the jewel… Still, the destruction of the mirror had proved to be quite a field leveler.

Soon Kagura was able to see the transformed Sesshomaru, and she hovered in the distance for a moment, looking on with eyes wide in amazement. _'Such power… Such strength…'_ she thought to herself. _'He is the one who shall unlock me from that horrible monster!'_

The two minions watched as Sesshomaru's deafening howl ceased, how he panted and looked distressed, then seemed to calm himself as the wolf spoke to him. Then in a flourish of youki he returned to his humanized form. Sesshomaru's eyes wandered up to the feather on the air. He said to Koga, "We have reinforcements it appears."

"I'm on it." He spun and yelled at the monk. "Miroku!" The monk sat up and turned to face him. "Uhh, entertain her," he said with an obvious and comical wink, their signal for what he was about to do.

"Hey wolf," Kagura said as she set her and Kohaku gently down on the ground. "Why are you-" Koga leaped at the boy, tackling him to the ground and deftly gouging the shard from his neck without issue. Kohaku slumped lifelessly to the ground as Kagura stood shocked, and then angry. "YOU FUCK!" She ripped her fan open and just before she unleashed her Dance of the Dragon, Sesshomaru zipped over to her and nearly shattered her wrist with his fierce grip.

"He is not finished yet, Kagura. Be patient." Crimson locked with golden and she shrank into herself, full of fear at this most powerful of demons. "Watch."

Koga felt Tenseiga shiver at his side. He did as Sesshomaru had discussed with him before, he drew it and let it dictate destiny. Koga saw the pallbearers of Hell giggling over Kohaku's body, and solely on instinct, Tenseiga knew exactly what to do. It sliced through them effortlessly, almost like reflex, and Kohaku drew his first free breath, only to release it in a scream.

" _ **WHAT HAVE I DONE!**_ "

Miroku had been watching out of the corner of his eye as he lovingly kissed his wife under their warm blanket, watched and nearly stopped breathing himself when he witnessed what Koga had done, and then nearly heaved a sigh of relief when saw that Tenseiga was reacting to Kohaku's death and wished to resurrect the kid. When Sango heard her brother's voice, she immediately sat up and stared at him. He was on his knees, head thrown back, crying to the sky. Screaming with the memories of what he had done to his father, his sister, his clan and village. Sango was up like a shot and ran flat out to him, skidding to a halt on her padded knees as she cradled him against her.

"Sister! What have I done! KAMI, WHAT HAVE I DONE!" His tears fell fat and fast from his eyes. Sango held him and let his body wracking sobs come. The memories of what happened that night he killed his people came flooding back with a clear vengeance, and all of the painful guilt and shame was overwhelming. He felt sick to his stomach, felt light headed and suddenly had a pounding headache. "You should have just let me die," he sobbed. "I cannot live with this…"

"Kohaku…" She cried silently as his shoulder. Sango had worked through most of this pain on her own already. This release of sorrow was purely for him. "I was there. I saw what you did. I have lived the knowledge of these things, and I've come a long way since that day. You will heal in time."

"No, you don't understand! It was ME who did those things!"

"No it wasn't! Naraku controlled you, even then! Naraku did those things!"

"But he used ME to do it! My hands… they are the ones that are bloodstained."

Sesshomaru sauntered up next to him. "Kohaku. You have a chance to help this pack slaughter the monster that did the things you speak of. When you take your revenge on Naraku, you will have atoned for every life that was taken by your weapon. There will be time for mourning afterwards, but tonight we move to destroy that mass of flesh. We must go right now. This Sesshomaru can feel Naraku's presence moving."

"Kohaku," Sango looked into his tear filled eyes, "I love you, and I do not hold our father's death against you. Sesshomaru-sama is right. When you help us take him down you will be forgiven of all your sins committed while he controlled you. It's not as if you had a choice." She wiped his face with fingers. "Let's go kill this nasty fucker, lets get revenge for our village."

"And my pack," Koga said.

"And my grandfather, father, and me," Miroku added.

"And me…" Kagura agreed.

"He will pay for attempting to use this Sesshomaru in his little games." He bent down and looked the boy in the eye, and Kohaku seemed to bury himself in his sister's safe embrace. "Listen to this one Kohaku. You must convert all of this guilt and sorrow and pain that you are feeling into undying rage, do you understand?" Kohaku could only quake with fear.

"Little brother, he will not harm you. Please, listen well to him," Sango said as she moved away from him a little.

"You must bite those tears back, swallow them and fuel the fire against our enemy. You must take every one of those memories and turn them into a lick of flame in the inferno that will spur you on as we fight this evil bastard. Turn every tendril of that intense blaze and turn it into a lethal strike against him. This will be our finest hour, we cannot accept failure. This ends tonight. Naraku ends tonight! THIS WORLD SHALL KNOW PEACE AGAIN!" He grabbed Kohaku's arm. "YOU SHALL TAKE YOUR REVENGE BOY! AND YOU WILL CARVE YOUR FATHER'S NAME ON NARAKU'S DYING FACE!"

Kohaku's eyes dried. Whatever trance Sesshomaru held him in was working. He felt the anger within him swelling to a point he felt he could no longer control it. Koga put the shard from Kohaku's back into the kid's chain scythe. It glowed a happy purple then faded back to normal. Sesshomaru offered to pull the boy to his feet, and he accepted.

"Sango, retrieve your weapon, we're going," Kohaku said with an all too familiar stoic look on his face, copying Sesshomaru's emotionlessness perfectly. "We go to right all that monster's wrongs."


	8. The Four Horsemen

Kagome was nearly asleep again when his voice in her mind stirred her awake.

' _Kags, my love I need you to wake up, I need you to hear me…'_

Her bleary blue eyes opened. It was dark, and the air in the hut seemed to have a bite as the temperature dropped outside. She rubbed at her eyes and stretched a bit.

' _Kags… Baby, I need you to listen…'_

Her mating mark was aching. Then it dawned on her that Koga was trying to contact her. _'Yes my mate, I hear you…'_

' _We're going to end it tonight.'_

' _End what tonight? You mean Naraku?'_ She sat bolt upright, suddenly afraid for all who were gone from her; for her feudal brother and sister, for her greatest and most powerful ally, for her loving mate and husband. _'Koga…'_

' _Don't worry koishii, we saved Kohaku, and Kagura is among us as well. We will defeat this bastard, and then I will return to you and we will live out the rest of our days at the den and raise our children.'_

"Kagome? Are ye alright child?" Kaede rolled to her side, facing the girl.

"Just a minute obaa-san, she is communicating with Koga," Hakkaku croaked, his arm slung lazily over Ginta's. He could sense the energy around her as well as Koga's. He knew they were speaking privately through their most intimate bond.

' _Koga… Please, be careful. He is an enemy of the most heinous kind. He will not hesitate for an instant to brutally slay you, and he will play with your mind and your heart. Guard them both closely. We all will pray while you battle.'_

' _Kags… if I don't make it home…'_ he said as worry laced his gentle inner voice in Kagome's mind.

"Don't say that!" she said aloud, as well as through her mark. Ginta and Hakkaku both looked up at the surge of fear that suddenly shot from her aura.

' _Kagome, listen to me. Don't be upset, it's just in case. If for some reason something happens and I don't make it back, I want you to name my son after my father,_ _Masahiko.'_

A tear slid down her cheek. _'Our boys…'_ she said to him mentally as she rubbed her enormous belly, _'Masahiko and InuKei. A "Just Prince" and a "Lucky Dog"…'_

' _And don't you go into labor before I can make it back to you.'_ She could feel him smiling, but she could also sense his fear, though buried deep.

' _I won't. You have my word. I love you Koga.'_

' _Aishiteru koishii.'_

And with that their connection fell silent, and that all too familiar buzzy feeling crept into her mark, replacing the dull ache she had come to associate with pure love. What started as a single tear soon grew to many. The whole hut was awake now. Jaken had stoked up the fire as Kaede and Rin went to Kagome's side. Ginta and Hakkaku shared a worried look between them, and then knelt by her as well.

"Sis, what did he say?" Ginta said in his gentle voice.

Kagome wiped at her eyes, willed her tears to stop. "They go to fight Naraku tonight. They're going now." Silence dominated the room for the second time that day. "Koga's carrying Tenseiga. Kohaku's shard was removed from his back and placed in his scythe. Kagura's there." All of these details she was able to glean from his mind as they were connected. "When Sesshomaru howled, Kagura said Naraku trembled in fear. The time to strike is obvious. They will catch him off guard and unprepared."

She gathered herself up, threw on a warm robe and asked Rin to help her to the bushes. Kaede looked at the others, "She is very distressed. I worry for the sake of her children. We must do all we can to keep her quiet and calm." Everyone agreed. When the two girls returned, Kaede brewed a hot tea to help soothe her nerves, a drink that she also offered to Rin, who was also becoming worried and agitated.

"Kaede, we must pray for them. Naraku could very well kill all of them, with or without the help of his minions." She said this casually as she sipped. The tea was already beginning to work, and Kagome watched the fire in front of her with a serene peaceful look on her face.

"Yes, child. We must pray now." The two mikos began their prayer ritual as Rin looked on, not sure how to pray for the safety of her demon lord and intended mate. She simply sat calmly and eventually laid back in her bed and slept as the two women's chanting lulled her to sleep. Ginta and Hakkaku had gone out to the forest, found the highest hill within a reasonable distance and howled at the moon in their feral forms, praying the only way they knew by baying at the moon. Jaken offered his own prayer to any god or spirit that could hear him, asking only that his Lord be protected during battle and that their victory would be swift and without serious injury to any involved. Then he sat down with his back to Ah-Un and simply listened to wolves in the distance.

It was going to be a very long night.

* * *

"Koga, we gotta go," Miroku said as he brought up the rear of the group.

"Aishiteru koishii," he whispered as he broke his connection with Kagome, his lover and his mate and the mother of his cub. He got to his feet, checked to be sure both his once used katana and Tenseiga were nestled snugly where they should be. As an afterthought, he quietly reached down, snagged one of the shards from his legs and slapped it into his sword, thinking smugly to himself, _'I used this sword one other time to rid the world of a hanyou bastard, I intend to repeat that action again tonight.'_

Sesshomaru flew on a cloud as Kohaku, Sango and Miroku rode on Kirara, and Koga and Kagura flew on her feather. "Kagura, you must lead us to where he is hiding if we are to take him out," Sesshomaru said in his icy voice. Kagura nodded once and took the lead, swooping low into the forest, hiding them amongst the trees for as long as possible. As soon as they hit the small clearing opposite of a mountain lake, Sesshomaru's nose was assaulted by Naraku's scent.

"He's inside that cliff face. See the giant rock formation there, the one that kinda looks like a pagoda? That's the entrance."

Miroku looked at Sesshomaru. "Shouldn't we try to get him to come out?"

"This Sesshomaru will taunt him out, don't worry. All of you land at the bottom of the wall. This one will pull him out. Koga," his head whipped to face the wolf demon prince, "you'll know when I'm coming, you'll be able to smell it before Kagura. Get everyone in a half circle down there, and as soon as you see him come out, unload everything you have. If you hear any battle cries from this one, stop whatever you're doing and get the fuck away. This Sesshomaru intends to use the full power of Tetsusaiga to do away with Naraku once and for all."

Koga nodded as he nudged Kagura to take the feather down, Kirara and her riders following after them. Sesshomaru thought to himself, _'If we make it out of here alive, I will take Rin back to my palace and await my destiny with her. I will remove InuYasha's head from my palace gate and properly bury what is left of him. I will let my hatred and lack of emotion go, I will allow my little girl to teach me how to live, let her train me to be as happy as she always is. I will be kinder, more benevolent, more forgiving of the human race, I will be a good ruler, a good mate, eventually a good father… I will atone for my sins Father, brother. I will make it all up to you both. Please guide my hands and my heart in this, our most important battle.'_ He landed on his feet on a tiny rock ledge, just behind the pagoda shaped rock and entered the winding cavernous tunnel. He heard InuTaisho growl approvingly, felt InuYasha's fighting spirit within his body as he spiraled up into the darkness… Naraku's day of reckoning had finally come.

Down below, Koga readied the troops. "Spread out a little wider!" he called as they made a large semi-circle around the bottom of the rock wall. Once he was satisfied, he drew his own sword, the one he only used to kill hanyou with, and simply waited for Sesshomaru to come out.

"What do you think he's doing in there?" Kagura asked.

"I'm sure he has something special planned…" Miroku said. "Sesshomaru hates to be used. Naraku tried to use him early on, giving him a hive of Saimyosho to use against me. Can you believe we used to all be enemies?"

Koga laughed. "Once Naraku's gone you never know how friendly we might all be. This asshole is behind nearly all the traumatic events in all of our lives." They all nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, Sesshomaru strolled calmly through the endless stone corridor. He could smell him, that filthy conglomeration of weak yokai parts was definitely in here, and definitely hiding deep. "Naraku." Sesshomaru's voice carried well in the enclosed space. "This one will find you. This Sesshomaru will exterminate you like the vermin you are. You should make this easy on yourself and just come out. No sense in wasting your energy when you know you're going to die anyway."

Suddenly and completely without warning, Naraku shot his tentacles out of the dark as Sesshomaru came to where the tunnel ended and the cave opened up into a gallery, attempting to puncture the armor on his chest and nearly breaking the steel pauldron on his left shoulder.

"Kukuku, Sesshomaru. You don't think I'd give up so easily now do you? Don't you think I knew you were planning to come after me all along?"

Sesshomaru was calm, expecting Naraku to pull such a stunt. He counted on his arrogance to cause him to act in such a way. In an instant Tokijin was in his hand, slicing and shredding the fleshy appendages from his body. He stopped his advance.

"This Sesshomaru refuses to fight you in the dark, Naraku. Be brave and fight this one in the open, where we shall be more evenly matched."

"As if I don't already know about your pitiful band down below!" Naraku roared as he sent a new wave of demon body parts at him. Sesshomaru saw Naraku's red center, the red eye of what he assumed was his demon soul. He gathered his youki and whispered into the dark, "Dragon Strike."

Thunder reigned inside the rocky space, blue energy whipping around smiting everything in its deadly path. The dragon rose from the formless cracks of lightning and headed straight at Naraku's core, decimating the flesh between Sesshomaru and the monster half-breed. Naraku screamed as he was hit full force and point blank from the attack. Before the thundering loudness stopped, Sesshomaru flung Tokijin straight and true, skewering him through that red eye and hitching the bastard's breath into a sweet gurgle of surprise. Sesshomaru drew Tetsusaiga and began backing out of the cavern, then turned and sprinted down the path he came.

Koga smelled the movement that Sesshomaru had spoken of. Whatever Sesshomaru had done, it had royally pissed Naraku off. They heard the thunderous attack from inside the cave, heard Naraku shouting, and then Koga made out that Sesshomaru had took a flying leap of faith out from the mouth of the cave, silver hair flying out behind him, kimono sleeves caught on the wind just as he shifted himself into his flight form. He stood on a cloud, Tetsusaiga drawn and ready to battle. A breath later, Naraku appeared on the cliff face.

"NOW!" Koga yelled, and in the blink of an eye, Hiraikotsu flew out from Sango's steady hand, soaring high and to the left, spinning on through the distance only to be thwarted by one of Naraku's tentacles. It flew off course, bounded into the stony surface and clattered to the ground. She hopped on Kirara and sped to fetch it. Sango leaned over, grabbed the leather strapping and just barely missed being grabbed by the sinister fuck as she turned and raced back to her position.

"Dance of Blades!" Kagura called as she whipped her fan towards the thing that had brutally raped and terrorized her since the day he'd created her. Several of the blades severed his tentacles, but they regenerated quickly. "Dammit… Dance of the Dragon!" Four small cyclones descended from the sky, spiraling and circling around the area, picking up jagged rocks, stones and even a boulder or two, and then spun off together, joining as one large tornado. Naraku gurgled as he was sucked inside the maelstrom, the rocks and stones cutting him all over his body. Just as a smile was beginning to form on Kagura's face, her chest suddenly squeezed in on itself… She could hear Naraku's laughter over the din of the wind, and she slumped to her knees, clutching her chest and gasping in agony.

"You forget Kagura! I HOLD YOUR HEART!" As her concentration was broken, the wind's fury stopped, and Naraku regenerated once more. His body was so tired, but he wasn't about to give up. He jerked the chain around his neck that kept the Shikon Jewel close to his body free from his neck and made to swallow it. Just then, Kirara leaped from the trees carrying Sango and Kohaku. They rode hard and fast towards the monster. Sango hurled her weapon, slicing Naraku's arm free from his body, and Sesshomaru dove for the jewel. He caught it on the end of Tetsusaiga and flung it at Miroku's feet. The houshi didn't dare touch it. Instead he kicked a pile of dirt overtop of it and stood on it.

Kagura had not moved for over two minutes now. Koga feared she had died but Tenseiga wasn't speaking to him, so he had no choice but let her be, at least for the moment. "Sesshomaru!" he called. "We gotta figure out how to end this!" They watched as Kohaku leapt from the nekomata's back and landed on one of Naraku's enormous pauldrons. The boy hacked and slashed with his chain scythe, ripping deep wounds that seemed to close up as quickly as he made them. It didn't matter. The kid was lost in his own rage, screaming obscenities and attacking with reckless abandon. He succeeded in mostly shredding the half demon into small parts, which Miroku finally unleashed his wind tunnel upon after Sesshomaru grabbed Kohaku off the body and zipped away. The monk managed to suck up a good chunk of him before the Saimyosho appeared, forcing him to shroud his palm once again.

"Koga!" Sesshomaru called, "pull everyone back, go back into the trees!" Koga gathered up Kagura's limp body as the others went behind the tree line, Miroku careful to count his steps as he ran to the nearest noteworthy tree, leaving the sacred jewel buried in the ground.

"Sesshomaru, Kagura's gone I think…" Koga said as the Lord of the West touched down behind him. Sesshomaru took no notice of her.

"Put her out of the way for now. I think Naraku has done something to her heart. If we can find it most likely we'll be able to save her, but at the moment we have to get my father's fangs together."

Koga put his hanyou killing sword in his left hand as he drew Tenseiga with the right. "Tenseiga will do the work right? I'm not an excellent swordsman." Sesshomaru nodded.

"I will hit him with the Kaze no Kizu, it should be enough with Tenseiga's power joining with it, but if it isn't, we will wait for him to attack and hit him with Bakuryuuha. If that fails… It will simply not have to fail." Koga looked at him apprehensively. He thought the taiyokai might have had a touch of fear at the end of that statement. He let it go. He was determined to make this fight his last so he could get home to his mate.

"It won't fail. We can do this Sesshomaru."

Naraku tittered as he descended the cliff face. He cried out, "Run if you must! I'll delight in the pleasures of another tasty treat while you cower in the forest. Scream for your lord, little one! Scream out loud so he might hear you clearly!"

"SESSHOMARU-SAMA!"

Shock hit the four original travelers. That was Rin's voice. Sesshomaru's eyes went red instantly. The demon lord went feral upon hearing his intended's voice. Koga took a breath and hit his knees, summoning up his energy to contact his mate.

' _Kagome! Is Rin with you?'_

He heard her awakening, muddled with sleep. _'Koga? Is it over?'_

' _Kags, I need to know NOW. Is Rin with you?'_

' _Yes, she's sleeping right here. Why?'_

' _Just one of Naraku's games. We'll be finished here soon, I'll talk to you in a bit.'_

"Sesshomaru! Stop! That's NOT RIN! She's safe with Kagome, Naraku is fuckin' with your head!" The dog demon was still livid beyond all belief, not only had this asshole _dared_ to meet him on the battlefield and assume he would win, but he _dared_ to take his intended mate and bride and taunt him? The Aristocratic Assassin was about to lose his calm and deadly demeanor.

"Sesshomaru, it's a fake! He wants you to lose control! I swear to you, that s not your mate!" Sesshomaru continued to snap at the air around him, growling and snarling, youki whipping his hair and mokomoko around. "Think about it, she's at least five days from here, there's no way he could have gotten her away so fast, even your energy ball would take two days to get back to her! It's not Rin! It is NOT Rin!"

Just before he transformed into his true form, Sesshomaru glared at Koga. "Follow me," he snarled and they ran flat out to where Naraku sat writhing on the ground, tentacles and other flesh limbs seeming to grow from a human abdomen, and in his human arms he held a perfect copy of Rin.

"Kukuku, she is sweet Sesshomaru. I can see why you keep the little concubine to yourself…" He ran a ridiculously long red tongue over the copy's face, delighting in her cries of terror as she squirmed in his grip. Had Kagura been conscious, she would have cried for the little girl, having once been in her place.

Even though Sesshomaru knew this was a fake, as he could now scent as such, the facsimile was much too real, and the sight of Naraku _tasting_ the girl who would become the woman he would mate was utterly repulsive. It sparked a rage so hot it threatened to burn him from the inside out.

"Koga, it is time. Just let Tenseiga use your body for its own purpose." Sesshomaru stood in feral form, ready to smite the son of a bitch that stood before him. "Naraku! Your reign of terror is about to come to an end! Do you have anything you'd like to say before I banish you to the far side of hell?"

Naraku laughed. "Kukukuku! Such impudence! Such _arrogance_! I have detachments that are stronger than you, yet you think you will be able to defeat me?"

Sesshomaru roared in a voice much like his brother's, "Gods dammit! Why can't you shut your fucking mouth!" He hefted Tetsusaiga over his head. "How about this Sesshomaru shuts you up PERMANENTLY! **KAZE NO KIZU!** "

Reacting to his attack, Koga's arms followed through and struck the ground in tandem with the other fang. The attack began as normal, searing golden blades of hot white force, but it grew as Tenseiga's own brand of energy coupled with it, a bright blue streak of crackling thunder, rolling straight down to Naraku's form, exploding the ground and the cliff face into thousands of particles of dust, choking the air with thick clouds of debris.

Before the dust settled, Naraku laughed once more. "You'd kill your chibe-hime in order to kill me?"

"I'd kill that copy of my princess any day, and you right along with it, you coward." Sesshomaru was spitting mad. "What kind of powerful warrior fights using mind games! A weak one, and that's what you are. A weak, dirty, useless, filthy excuse for a hanyou!"

Naraku absorbed the copy back into his body. "You think I don't have powers of my own, you pompous ass?"

"No, I don't. Aside from your _weak_ miasma, I don't think you know how to do anything. My blood has more poison in it than your miasma." Sesshomaru's goading was sure to pull out any attacks he might have.

"Sesshomaru, do you seriously think I'm so stupid as that? To unleash upon you some kind of force that would allow your idiotic Bakuryuuha? It's a shame that you all are going to die by my hand… You would be such wonderful additions to my body." The tentacles zipped out once more, only to be chopped off by Sango's Hiraikotsu.

"Sesshomaru, I think a retreat is in order…" Koga growled under his breath. "We need Kagome in order to purify him."

"I am not giving up that easy wolf." He raised Tetsusaiga again and let loose with another Kaze no Kizu, which Tenseiga followed. As Naraku floated about in pieces, Miroku unwrapped his wind tunnel again, sucking up what he could before the Saimyosho could be sucked up. They were whittling him down, but it wasn't enough. they needed Kagome in the worst way, and there was no way to get her there, and no way that Koga would let her fight anyways.

Suddenly, he felt the back of his head aching, that sweet spot where he felt his mates presence as they'd conversed. Koga rubbed there with his left hand, _'What is it Kags?'_

' _Tell Sesshomaru you want to try something.'_

"Sesshomaru, Kagome says she wants to try something, I think she's going to help us out." The Demon Lord nodded at him to proceed with his tactic.

' _Alright kiddo, show me what you got!'_

' _Concentrate on Tenseiga as hard as you can. I need to be able to feel what it feels like in your hand, its weight, everything.'_

Koga hefted it a bit, ran his fingers along the handle, touched of its hilt and blade, swished it through the air a couple of times.

' _Ok. Relax. Tell Sesshomaru to attack when he is ready. Once you tell him, go completely limp in that arm.'_

"Ok, ready when you are," he said as he turned to Sesshomaru, and then letting Tenseiga all but slip from his hand, Koga loosened his grip and relaxed his arm as much as he could.

"Naraku!" Sesshomaru snarled. He hefted his brother's sword high overhead, still feral, still snapping at the air around him. Koga's arm began to feel white hot and tingly. He tried to stay as relaxed as possible. He heard Sango gasp and decided it was better if he didn't open his eyes to see what his mate was doing to him across the expanse of miles. He was suddenly hyper aware of every single thing around him. Koga felt every speck of dust on the air, every drop sea moisture in the forest, could smell the odor of each individual person, even the unconscious Kagura… He could practically feel the pressure of the air changing with every breath Sesshomaru made beside him, in addition to the ones that Naraku made in front of him. That white hot tingle was burning him from the inside out, almost hot enough to make him look. But he kept himself calm, gritted his teeth as a groan of pain struggled to come through his curled lips…

" _ **KAZE NO KIZU!"**_

Koga's painfully aching arm shot up from his side, he dropped his hanyou killing blade and grasped the handle with both hands, screaming in pain the whole way. Sesshomaru's attack landed first, carving the ground in the all too familiar fanned gouges of his brother's sword, Tenseiga's cracking blue energy was transformed into a purple crackling ball of reiki, hurtling and splitting, then growing and splitting again into many large balls of reiki and youki energy combined. InuTaisho's fangs caused the entire cliff to explode in a rumbling cascade of rock. Naraku's screams could barely be heard as the earth crumbled under the powerful strike. It had completely annihilated the swarm of Saimyosho, and thus Miroku stood at the front of the pack, sucking in debris, chunks of stinking hanyou flesh, pieces of his armor, all of it. Kohaku's chain scythe flew out and caught Naraku's head, jerking it back towards him so hard that it bowled him over into the soft grass. Miroku sucked Naraku's body inside the wind tunnel that was rapidly closing. He fisted his hand and said, "Kohaku, make it quick!"

"Ko-kohaku?" Naraku's voice whispered. "Have you come to s-s-save me?"

The boy took his sharp weapon, carved his father's name in Naraku's cheek and spit in his eye. "No." He nodded at Miroku, who opened his hand as if to catch a thrown rock, and sucked Naraku's head down inside the Kazaana, and then it closed, leaving behind only a faint scar.

* * *

Naraku was dead.

* * *

Before any of them had a chance to let that first whoop of victory ring out, Koga screeched in pain and dropped Tenseiga from his hands, falling to his knees and then falling to his face. He had severe burns on his hands and up his arms, his right palm scorched so badly that the skin was trying to slip off. He was shaking with shock, bleeding from his eyes and ears, the shard that remained in his leg had been forced out, which reminded Miroku to hunt down where he buried the nearly completed jewel.

As Sesshomaru began to recede from his feral form, he felt a hot white tingling of his own in what remained of his left arm. Now he fell to his knees beside the wolf, howling in inu, screaming in agony. He looked over to find that his arm was regenerating, that by the time he even looked he'd grown back to his elbow, and then his forearm and an unclawed hand appeared. The pain was quickly gone, and now he had his arm back. He held his hand in front of him, amazed that he now had a whole body again. As he examined his palm, he noticed the lines there formed Rin's kanji, and he thought at first it was an optical illusion, something brought on because he thought he was going to lose his chibe-hime.

Koga howled in ookami, howled that he was in excruciating pain as Sango tried to do what she could for him. She wiped at his eyes and ears with a rag she kept in one of her many secret hiding places. She examined his hands and arms gingerly, careful not to touch him in a way that pained him, although it was very obvious _any_ touch sent him flying of the edge of agony.

"Sesshomaru, he's got to get back to Kaede's. He's hurt really, really bad." She took the shard that had been forced from him and inserted it back into his shin. He seemed to calm his screaming a bit as it was reabsorbed into his flesh.

"What happened?"

Miroku came back with the Shikon Jewel carefully dangling from the chain that Naraku had it hanging from. "I think she sent her spiritual energy to us through their mating mark. But I think she damn near purified him. Sesshomaru, it's very possible that he might die if we don't hurry."

Without further ado, he tried to gently lift his comrade to his shoulder where mokomoko sat waiting to curl around the wolf. "I'll take him, I should be able to get there in a day and a half if I push it. I will meet you when you get there."

"Wait!" Kohaku called. He pulled the shard from his scythe and placed it in Koga's forearm. "It might help. He's got one in his other sword, let me get it." He placed this second shard in Koga's most injured palm. The burns there seemed to immediately look better, and he seemed to be relieved of some of his pain. "Can you carry him if he takes the rest of the Jewel? Kagome needs to purify it once she completes it."

Sesshomaru nodded, and Kohaku and Sango made a makeshift carrying case for it out of Kohaku's knee pads and then tied it up tight with Sango's hair tie. Sango slipped it in between Koga's chest and his breastplate. Miroku slid Tenseiga back into Koga's scabbard at his hip. "The armor should protect you both from the aura within. Hurry Sesshomaru, we will see you again in a few days. Hurry if you can."

After the Demon Lord left in his orb of light and crackling energy, Sango, Miroku and Kohaku went to Kagura's side. She hadn't moved since the battle began. Assuming it was over for her, Miroku began to say a prayer over her seemingly lifeless body. Without warning, Kanna appeared, holding Kagura's heart. She walked silently to her sister and pressed the glowing, beating organ to her chest. They all watched as her body willingly absorbed it, and then heard the first loud beat it made. Kagura's eyes flitted closed, and then blinked several times. She sat up slowly, with Kohaku's help. She pressed her hand to her chest, a genuine smile creeping across her lips as she realized her heart was back, and it was beating; she was free.

"Kohaku! We did it kid! We beat that nasty bastard!" She kissed him soundly on the lips as she embraced him, Kohaku's face reddening to a point it was painful. Miroku grinned at him over his wife's shoulder. Kanna turned wordlessly, and then vanished like dust, blown away with the sea breezes that filtered though the trees. She was free now too.

"Kagura, what are your plans now?" Sango asked as Kohaku recovered from his blushing fit.

"I don't know where to start! I want to ride the wind, sail over the whole world twice, sleep in a field full of wildflowers and not worry that I'm going to be summoned to do some vile act with a multi armed lunatic… I'd like to… Just live and be free." Her crimson eyes were shimmering with tears. "I never thought I'd live to see the day."

"If you get by Edo, stop in some time." Miroku stood and helped the wind witch to her feet.

"Kohaku," Kagura said as she pulled a feather from her hair, "you were my only true friend. I hope we can remain as close now that we both have our freedom." Embarrassingly enough, she leaned down and kissed him yet again, and even more embarrassing was that he kissed her back, even allowing himself to touch her cheek before she released him. Red faced and completely flustered, he said, "I'd like that Kagura." She smiled as she took to the air, arms wide and smiling as the wind rushed over her body, pushing her sleeves back and causing the ends of her obi to flutter behind her.

Miroku put his arm around his young brother-in-law's shoulders. "Alright Kohaku, there's a couple of things you gotta know if you plan on wooing an older woman such as Lady Kagura."

"Miroku, now's not the time…" Sango said in a growling voice.

"Can we talk about something else please?" the boy asked as he looked away, still deeply blushing.

"Sure, but what's more interesting than a young man's first romantic encounter with a woman?" Miroku asked as they climbed onto Kirara's back.

"Aww geeze," the boy groaned. It was going to be a long ride home.


	9. Motorbreath

He just couldn't move fast enough. The scenery was streaking past him, nothing more than a blurred representation of the sky and the earth, and the wind… Had he not been encased inside the orb the wind would have shredded them both. Sesshomaru glanced down at his comrade on his shoulder. Koga's face was still twisted into a mask of horrifying pain, but his body seemed to be still, at least no longer trembling, and for that the taiyokai thanked Kami. Whatever Kagome had done had definitely been what had sealed their victory, but if she'd known it might cost her the mate she adored she may not have given of her powers so easily. Koga's right hand was blackened and charred. The skin there looked almost crispy, and Sesshomaru could smell infection trying to take hold there. He pushed his youki energy as hard as he could, willed himself to go faster through the sky, pushed his orb harder to hurtle towards their destination as quickly as possible. Dawn began to creep slowly over the horizon, mocking Sesshomaru's speed with it's own slowness. He growled low, irritated that there was nothing any of them could have done to save Koga, nothing that could have prepared them for the reiki filled attack, nothing they could have done to prevent the burns and scars he would now carry on his body… and that was if he lived. "Hang on Koga, we're going as fast as I can, don't die on me." Pushing every last bit of his demon essence into the orb, they sped a little faster, not much, but it was definitely noticeable.

Koga's eyes opened for a moment, glassy and stunned. "We… We killed him?"

"Yes. Sleep. You're badly hurt."

"Kags… I'm comin' home, anata." He wasn't sure if she heard him, although he intended to tell her through her mark that he was on his way back to her, he was just so weak, and hurting so bad from his injuries. Koga passed out on Sesshomaru's shoulder before he could wait to see if she would respond. Sesshomaru concentrated on their journey and tore through the air above Japan, streaking back to Edo as fast as inhumanly possible.

* * *

"KAMI NO!" Kagome nearly doubled over as she screamed with Koga's pain.

Kaede surged forward with an agility and grace that none of them thought she could have with her old age and girth. "Child, what's wrong?"

"I hurt him! I think I killed Koga!" She was sobbing. "I shouldn't have sent my power to him, I think I've purified him!" The entire room seemed to gasp at the same time. Had been any other situation it might have even been comical.

"Tell me what happened Kagome. I need to know so I can be prepared for when they bring him to me," Kaede said as she placed her arm around the woman's shoulder.

"I could sense that Koga needed my power, Naraku kept regenerating and regenerating… Koga said they needed me to purify him in order for their Tenseiga and Tetsusaiga to destroy Naraku… I told him to concentrate on Tenseiga, and I could feel the sword as if it were in my own hand, and then I concentrated on putting all of my reiki into its next blow." She looked up, eyes squeezing tears of regret. "I could feel it was burning his arm, his hands… It was hurting him so badly… And then…" Ginta and Hakkaku knelt beside her, Rin embraced her from the front. She was surrounded by love and family, and she wiped her face and continued. "He screamed… He brought Tenseiga's attack down and he screamed like he would explode from holding the sword. And then, before he was even sure if the attack had worked, he dropped it and then fell down…"

"Kagome-sama, Koga is very strong, I'm sure that he will recover from the reiki," Rin said quietly as she snuggled the young miko's very pregnant belly. "He only held it for a moment, right?"

"Yes, but the reiki was very, very strong. It had to be because it was for Naraku. It was the strongest release of my energy I have ever unleashed." She turned to her wolf kin. "You've seen my arrows, how powerful they are. That was nothing, I can put reiki into those without even thinking about it. I concentrated so hard that I became one with Koga, and… I haven't heard from him since he fell… My gods, I'm sure I've killed him," she sobbed as she slumped into herself, uncontrollably crying. Kaede brewed some more of the tea, but Kagome refused, yelling angrily that she should be allowed to mourn for her mate. The buzzing was gone from her shoulder, a sign that he was not conscious at least. She could only fear the worst, and no amount of cuddling or coddling or cosseting was going to convince her that he wasn't dead until she saw him come through the door on his own two legs. She simply struggled to her feet, wrapped herself in her warmest robes and trudged outside, crying in the cold predawn hours, listening to the crunch of the frost under her zori. Her sons roiled inside her, upset because she was upset. The one she was sure was the cub was nearly kicking his way out as she walked, seemingly pissed that his father was gone before he had a chance to even meet him. She understood now how InuYasha's mother must have felt regarding her own hanyou son. After a time, she supposed about three hours, although really it was only about one, she felt her mark come to life. It buzzed so lightly, so faintly, that at first Kagome assumed she must be having some sort of flashback of what that tingle felt like, a longing for it that memory had caused a phantom reaction, one that really wasn't there.

Then she heard him… no louder than a whisper floating on spring fog. _'Kags…'_ Kagome gasped. Her heart thudded in her chest. Weakly, and as if from some great distance, unlike his normal internal voice he had, he said, _'I'm comin' home, anata.'_ The mark he had left on her as a sign that he trusted her with his very soul ached strongly for just a moment, and then it returned to the soft, light buzzing, and then it stopped altogether. She could sense that someone had put his shards back in him, that Sesshomaru was moving flat out through the air, chasing over the earth to get him back to his mate. Kagome smiled, tears of joy now filling her eyes. Yes he was badly hurt, but she felt that Kaede could do something for him, and that his will to live was still very strong; maybe, just maybe, Koga would be alright.

Kagome began to walk quickly back to the hut, when suddenly she fell to her knees in pain. This was much more intense than what she felt from Koga. This pain tore through her lower back, as if someone had clamped her spine into a vice and was crushing her there. She screamed as a strong hard cramp splayed out across her lower abdomen. Those blue eyes went wide, there was an enormous pressure, and then she felt it as the pain began to let up; a warm gush from in between her legs. Her boys were coming, all of them, coming to see her.

"KAEDE!" she screamed into the early morning. The old woman and Rin came scrambling to her side, Ginta and Hakkaku and Jaken not far behind. Her wolf kin helped her to her feet and guided her slowly back to the hut. "They're coming too early!" she cried as she gritted her teeth through a second contraction.

Ginta sat behind her, trying to calm her as Kaede got some supplies together. "Kagome, wolf pups only take about seven months to mature in the womb, I'd assume pups are pretty much the same. I'd say you're only a week or two early, but not months early." He moved so he could brush her bangs from her face, "Your sons will be born healthy and perfect, I promise."

Kaede had readied what she would need, asked Rin to stay, and booted everyone else out. "I'm sorry but men cannot be present during the birth. I'm afraid ye have to wait until she's done now." They all wished Kagome good luck as they exited the hut. Now all any of them could do was wait.

* * *

By mid afternoon Sesshomaru was beginning to see familiar territory below him. He was absolutely exhausted. The drain of his youki to his orb was enormous. He needed to eat, to sleep, to simply rest. They had fought a hard battle, and he needed to recover. Unfortunately, the life on his shoulder hung in the balance. He couldn't be sure that Tenseiga would resurrect Koga if something happened to him before they got back to Edo, and so he ignored his body's pleas to stop. His tired flesh would simply have to wait until they made it back to the miko's home. At the speed they were travelling, he estimated another hour or two before they'd be there. The demon lord summoned the very last of his aura, pushed himself harder than ever, and the orb crackled with a surge of speed. In the meantime, he meditated on his Rin. He decided the first thing he was going to do was kiss her, in front of everyone, and damn them all to hell if they didn't understand. He wanted to taste her little girl lips, feel the warmth from them that he needed so desperately in order to melt his heart and change his soul. He decided he was going to have the monk marry them before he took her to the palace, and then he would simply wait for her to ripen in the safety of a warm home where she could be safe from all danger and learn to speak inu and be trained in tea ceremony and flower arranging and all the other things he knew she would enjoy, even combat if she chose to do so. He would wait to take her virginity until she was ready to bear pups, and he could wait the few years necessary for that. But Sesshomaru wanted to make it clear to all who had won his heart, who had melted his icy veins, and to be able to publicly be able to treat her as the Lady she was. His thoughts enveloped him, soothing him, and soon he was hit with the familiar smell of Edo's forest, the one that held his half brother's name. He slowed the orb, and felt instantly refreshed as his youki partially returned to his battle fatigued muscles.

He landed just outside Edo, just about fifty yards from Kaede's door.

"MY LORD!" Jaken yelled. Ginta and Hakkaku stirred awake, and then rushed to Sesshomaru's side, helping to lift Koga off his shoulder.

"Careful, he's very badly hurt. He's in immense pain." Sesshomaru did not conceal the worry in his eyes. Koga had turned out to be more than just an ally or acquaintance or a loyal subject under his rule, he had turned out to be a very good friend to Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru was worried for his friend's life. He allowed the emotion to stay, as awkward as it felt, but knew it was okay, because Rin was going to teach him how to deal with such feelings in time. Speaking of which…

"RRRRRIIIIINNNNN!" he hollered as he sank to kneel down for her. Rin stuck her head out the door of the hut, saw it was her lord, and she came running to him, growling in inu that she loved him, eyes widening as she saw his left arm had grown back, and flung herself into both of his arms, their first true embrace. He kissed the top of her head, she cried into his mokomoko, and then he tilted her head back and kissed her rosy lips, Jaken staring open mouthed as if the sun had fallen from the sky. Sesshomaru's new hand wound itself in her hair, she moaned a little against his lips that struggled not to open her up and taste her tiny mouth. He would not do such a thing to her unless she was ready, he would not use her for his own fulfillment until she was mature enough, and even then only if it was something she wanted as well. And then his eyes went wide as _she_ opened _him_ up, her tiny warm tongue tasting his, feeling around inside his mouth as she deepened their first public show of affection.

He pulled away from her, gently, but definitely uncomfortable with how fast things seemed to have progressed with her. "Rin, where did you learn to do that?"

"Kagome-sama said when she was my age a boy she liked at her school showed her how, and she said that's how grown ups kiss." Rin looked at him with regret. "I'm sorry Sesshomaru-sama, did I do something wrong?"

"No Rin, you just shocked the hell out of me is all," as he breathed a sigh of relief. Kagome had imparted a piece of knowledge to his little girl that would benefit them both. How grateful he was to that young miko.

Rin's eyes looked up at him from under her bangs as her cheeks burned. "Can we do it again?"

He smiled. Oh yes, they _would_ do it again, but not now. "Later, anata." If Jaken's jaw could have fallen off it would have done so. His lord had _kissed_ the runt and then proclaimed she was his _beloved!_ How... completely unexpected! "Right now Koga is very, very ill. We must go help Kagome and Kaede care for him."

"Oh, you don't know! Kagome-sama's babies are coming! She is in labor right now!" Rin was bouncing up and down, telling her intended that she was helping Kaede a lot, helping Kagome know when to breathe and when to push… She pulled at his unclawed hand. "Come on, I have to get back to her, and we have to tend to Koga!" The little girl that held his heart held his hand as she nearly ran to where Koga and Kagome laid side by side.

Kaede realized that she was going to have to allow the men in if they were going to save Koga. Kagome was in hysterics. Here she was, about halfway through laboring with twins when her nearly dead husband and mate was laid beside her. Kaede dragged a privacy screen between them, allowing them to only see each other's faces in an effort to keep Kagome still and quiet. Kaede had the advantage of being able to oversee both of her patients at once, and she directed Ginta and Hakkaku what to do concerning the wolf, and directed Rin what to do concerning the human girl.

Hours passed.

It was growing dark outside again when Rin piped up, "Kaede-sama? I think I see something…" She pulled the blanket back and showed the old woman what she meant, and sure enough, the first child had finally crowned after fifteen hours of hard labor. Koga was now sleeping comfortably, his wounds nearly healed themselves from the shards in his body and the quick care that his wolf kin had showed for him. His hand had been cleansed and bandaged, the burn scars seeming to be mild in comparison to the original injury, and in between Kagome's cries of pain, he was even able to encourage her a little at one point, being aware of his surroundings enough to realize she was birthing his cub as he lay recovering beside her.

"Thanks for waiting till I got back, Kags," he said hoarsely. "I can't wait… to see what they look like, even the pup." They smiled weakly at each other, both exhausted and tired, and then Koga passed out again, and Kagome had another contraction rip through her body.

Outside, it began to snow. Sesshomaru sat near the door, peeking out occasionally, watching for the others' return when he saw Kagura's feather float by. _'Good. She deserved to live,'_ he thought. It was pointless to watch for the rest of his new pack, they were still days behind him. But it beat sitting inside watching Koga, or listening to the shrill cries of his mate who was in the throes of her woman's pain.

"Push Kagome-Sama!" he heard his beautiful little bride say. He smiled at the sound of her voice, and lost himself in the vision of the snowflakes tumbling silently to the ground. Then he was aware of a new scent entirely. He sniffed the air, turned to sniff over his shoulder, back inside the hut. That was the smell of a newborn… wait. That odor was of both pup and cub. It was not distinct as to which it was. He turned to look upon the child.

The squalling infant Rin held had black hair, dog ears, blue eyes and tiny fangs already poking through his gums. As Rin bathed the gunk from its body, Kaede took the next infant. Astoundingly, this child looked exactly the same as the other. The two boys could have passed for identical twins.

"Kaede-sama, which is the cub and which is the pup?" Rin seemed to be disturbed by this. How would they know what to name them if they couldn't tell them apart?

"May I smell of them?" Sesshomaru asked. "Wolf scent is much… wilder than dog scent." Rin gently held her infant, the first born, out to him, which he gently took and inhaled the scent of. His brow furrowed. This could not be, this child's scent was a perfect blend of inu and ookami. Sesshomaru examined the child closely, looking for any sign that he might be different from his half brother. He could not find one difference between them. The second born was quiet, it had not yet let out its first breath, and Kagome sat up, worried.

"Kaede? What's wrong with my son?"

Kaede rubbed furiously at the child's back, patted it hard, pinched and slapped at his tiny bottom, but nothing came from him. His little face began to turn blue, Kagome began to cry… Sesshomaru handed the eldest child back to Rin. He knelt and drew Tenseiga from Koga's side, asked Kaede to put the boy on the floor in his swaddling linens and move away. He saw hell's pallbearers, smirked and swung… And nothing happened. Tenseiga's revenge rattled him to his core.

' _Son. Tenseiga has now made even the transgressions between you. You will now be able to use it once again without fail.'_

"No! Tenseiga, you must resurrect the infant!" Sesshomaru stared at his former weapon with a look of complete defeat on his face. "You cannot forsake this innocent one's life!"

The sword said nothing, it didn't shiver, it didn't thump. It was silent, and its decision was final. Sesshomaru hit his knees and cried for the first time since he was a young whelp under his father's care. They had come all this way, fought so hard and finally brought peace back to his country. And now the second child to be born in the wake of Naraku's demise was going to die, all because of his transgression against his sword…

"Give him to me." They all turned to look at Koga, who was struggling to sit up. "Hand me Tenseiga and the child." Sesshomaru placed the dead infant in between Koga's knees and handed him his sword. When he took possession of it, what he saw made him gasp.

In addition to the pallbearers, Koga saw InuYasha's spirit cradling the infant's spirit to his body. _'Shh, it's alright son, I'm not going to keep you from your Mama and your brother. I just wanted to hold you while you were little, just this once, just for a little while.'_ Fat tears rolled out of InuYasha's face, as well as Koga's. _'InuKei, we won't meet again for a very long time, but I will always be watching over you my son. I will always be over your shoulder. I will always be protecting you from beyond.'_ He looked up at Koga, his features distorted from crying. _'I hope your Papa tells you how he saw us here together, and tells you how much I love you.'_ He kissed the squirming pup's head, in between his black dog ears, and gently laid the boy's spirit back in its body. _'All you need to do is pick him up Koga. Save Tenseiga for when he truly needs it. Take good care of my boy.'_

"I wish you peace InuYasha. I will love him as my own." Koga said as he laid Tenseiga down and picked the pup up. The pup instantly drew a loud breath and cried out loudly, and Kagome's tears of sorrow turned to cries of relief. Sesshomaru picked up the privacy screen and physically threw it out the door, and Koga handed Kagome the pup. "Kags, this is InuKei, the first one I scented."

With help from his pack, he scooted close to her, watched as she held him close and kissed his tiny nose. Rin moved in and deposited Masahiko into his waiting arms. His son, he was first born though second conceived. Sesshomaru sniffed again. It was impossible to tell them apart. Had the pup not died they might never have known which was which.

"I suggest you find a way to tell them apart, it will get very confusing if you don't," Kaede said as she heaved a sigh from her old body.

Sesshomaru dug inside his juban and pulled the little blue ribbon from Rin's hair out from its resting place over his heart. "Here, tie this on the pup's ankle." Rin smiled at him, watched as he tied it on himself, then nuzzled his cheek as he knelt behind her and embraced her. They watched as Koga pulled the red tie from Tenseiga's hilt, pulled a strip from the narrow cloth and fashioned a red ribbon for his son's ankle. Both boys were given a good bath, a good feeding and then Kagome and Koga placed their infants between them and drifted off to sleep as Kaede allowed Ginta to cook everyone some well deserved dinner.

A few days later, Miroku and Sango arrived with Kohaku. The three of them met Koga and Kagome's new family, and by the end of the day, Sesshomaru had married his darling Rin. The ceremony was brief, not as formal as most human ceremonies go, but his chibe-hime had told him the human binding did not matter to her as much as the yokai binding, the permanent and soulful bond that she watched Kagome and Koga share was what she really wanted. He explained to her why he had to wait to mark her, and she understood and accepted that three or four more years was no big deal when she thought of how she might gain two hundred years or more of life to share with her lord.

A month had passed, Koga decided it was time to go back to the den, now that he had completely recovered from his injuries. He wanted to gauge the pack's reaction to InuKei, find out if it would cause a coup or a riot or nothing. He had to admit though, he was finding it hard to leave Edo. He and Kagome had spent a lot of time here before they mated. It was comfortable and familiar, there were both demons and humans to interact with. Kaede was a wonderful counselor and teacher to Kagome regarding her spiritual powers. Ginta and Hakkaku seemed happy, especially after Kagome had convinced them to tell him about the fact that they had mated each other. Sango and Miroku had built a home of their own and had found out they would be having two girls in the fall, thanks to Sesshomaru's insane sense of smell. Sesshomaru even had a small hut built so that when they came to visit they would have their own home to stay in.

"Kags, what do you think of me relinquishing my title?" he asked as he cradled the pup while Kagome fed the cub.

"Why would you do that?" she asked as looked down for the thousandth time at her first born, making sure her breast wasn't suffocating him as he suckled hungrily.

"I dunno… I kinda like it here. I like being close to Sango and Miroku, and I like that Ginta and Hakkaku like it here. Sesshomaru comes and goes a lot."

Kagome grinned. "You two sure have become fast friends."

Koga nodded as he cooed in ookami to InuKei. "Sess is a great guy. I don't know what it is about Rin that does it for him, but I'm glad he was able crawl out from his icy shell and be the good yokai that lie dormant inside all this time. Kinda reminds me of myself before I ever met you."

Kagome unlatched Masahiko from her breast and began to burp him. "You were emotionless and cold and unfeeling before you met me?" she said with a tone of smugness.

"Well, not exactly. I was wild and untamed and unrefined… Everything I did was on impulse and without thought. And then came you, and all of that changed." The cub belched and then began to close its sleepy blue eyes. Kagome wrapped him up tight, then exchanged him for the pup, switched breasts and began to feed her second son. "You made me a man, Kagome. It may have taken me a long time to snag you officially, but you changed me the moment I stole you. Made me see that I would never win you if I was like InuYasha, who was just like me, wild and untamed. I am still sorry I killed him, even though he forgave me, and blessed me with the care of his boy. I wonder if I'll ever lose the guilt…"

"InuKei will help. You can make it up to _him._ InuYasha forgave you because he now knows that your heart was in the right place when you did it, even if his was not when he took me the way he did and couldn't see why that was wrong at the time." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "For what it's worth, even though it's been a long and hard way for us to go, I wouldn't change anything about has happened. I am happy we are together Koga. I am proud to be your woman."

Koga decided he would pay Ginta and Hakkaku to build two huts, one for each of their families, and over near where Sango and Miroku had built theirs; Koga stepped down from his duties and officially named Kenji and his sons the ruler and heirs to the Eastern Territories, had Sesshomaru come out to the den and oversaw the whole thing to make it official. After that, the heroes of Japan lived quietly and peacefully in Edo, watching as children and pups and cubs alike all grew up together, a new pack full of new life.

All was right with the world.


	10. Hit the Lights

Epilogue: Seven years later

It was spring. Edo was alive with flowers and birds and the sound of people's allergies acting up because of all the pollens in the air. Fields were being prepared for planting, houses were being cleaned and aired out of winter's staleness, and everyone seemed happy and alive.

Koga woke late that morning, having spent most of the night drinking with Sesshomaru, Kohaku, Miroku, Ginta and Hakkaku. Today was Kohaku's wedding day. The boy was now a man, and the man had named the wind sorceress as his bride. Kagura was all too happy about it. They had known each other for quite a long time, almost all of Kagura's life. She trusted him like no other, and he was all too proud when he realized that while it was actually quite common for demon men to take human mates, it was rare for a human man to take a demoness. He beamed at the thought of Kagura biting into his neck with her teeth, wearing a mating mark that would be smaller and daintier than Kagome's or Rin's.

"Papa, Mama says if you don't get up she's coming to purify you again," said InuKei. The boy was strong and stubborn, just like his father, InuYasha. But to say that this child wasn't Koga's was completely false. InuKei was loved by Koga just as he told InuYasha he would be: Koga loved the boy as his own, and treated him no better or worse than any of the other four children he had. Masahiko and InuKei were definitely the leaders of their brood. Their other three children, a chubby five year old named Eiji, a brilliant little girl named Sora, and their newest, a six month old named Megumi, the only one of Koga's kids to be born with his tail. She was a stunning little beauty with her raven hair and raven tail, demon eyes like her father's but in the beautiful hue of her mother's. Sesshomaru seemed to be quite taken by her and doted on her a lot, despite Kagome's pleading not to spoil the child.

And it wasn't as if he couldn't spoil his own children, Rin had borne him two daughters of his own, both of whom lacked the dog ears she so wanted for her children. These pups, because of Sesshomaru's strong blood, were born more demon than human, and even though they were born four years after Kagome's twins, they appeared to be much older because of their demon rate of maturity, looking to be about ten. Rin told Kagome how lucky she was not to have had to feed pups that couldn't yet control their youki. If one of Rin's daughters went too long without a feeding or a change of diaper, they would transform into their true forms, about the size of large mortal dogs. That terrible two's stage had been horrendous. The fact that she was now pregnant again was weighing heavily on her mind, but thank goodness this one was going to be an heir, a son. Maybe then she would start taking the concoction his palace healer said she could take if she didn't want to have any more pups.

Miroku and Sango's girls now led their little brother and sister down the hill as their very pregnant mother chased them out of the house to help Kagura get into her uchikake and to fix her hair. They'd been sent to fetch Kagome to help, and Kagome had sent InuKei to wake his Papa, and so Koga groaned as he rolled over in the futon, his hair loose and spilling about his shoulders in a tangled mess.

"Alright already, I'm gettin' up. Where's the rest of ya?"

"Masahiko is with our cousins outside, he's got Eiji with him, Ginta has Sora and Rin has Megumi." He dipped out a ladle full of water and handed it to his Papa. "Mama says to make sure we're cleaned up and ready for Kohaku's big day."

"Don't remind me," he said as he rubbed his head. Dammit, he hated when he drank too much. Fuckin' hang over… No, this was more like _slung under_. The monk always knew where to find the best liquor. "Geeze. You'd think after as many weddings as we've all been to they'd get over their girly obsession with the damn event."

"Papa," InuKei said as he played absently with a wildflower, "why do the women get all weird when it comes to weddings and pups and babies and cubs?"

Koga shook his head. "Son, when some man figures it out I hope he tells us all what the big deal is. Come on, let's go find our pack and get everyone lookin' nice for your Mama before she purifies me or brains me with her stirring spoon or something else unpleasant." He ran his fingers through his hair quickly, trying to smooth out the knots as best he could before tying it back.

As soon as he stepped out into the bright sunshine, he was pounced on by his little girl, who was running down the hill playing tag with Miroku's kids. "Papa!" she squealed as she leaped into his arms. She turned and looked over her shoulder, calling out "Safe!"

"Aww, no fair! You didn't call your dad as a base when we started!" This coming from Miroku's son.

"Hey now, Sora is always safe in her Papa's arms, ain't that right sweetie?" Koga's pride and joy, his little girl that reminded him so much of what he thought Kagome must have been like as a child. She licked his throat all the way to his cheekbone and growled in ookami that she was "Papa's princess."

Miroku's son yipped that she was more like "Papa's little brat." All of the children easily picked up ookami, even Sesshomaru's kids who were so fluent in inu that sometimes they didn't even speak Japanese at all. Koga didn't require his kids to speak his language; he honestly felt it was too rough on the throat to speak it all the time, but apparently once Rin became fairly experienced in it, Sesshomaru spoke to her in that and nothing else at the palace. It kept his very private life private as he and his family were constantly attended to by various servants and vassals.

Kohaku emerged from Ginta and Hakkaku's hut, wearing the formal black haori and hakema, the blinding white tabi and new zori. "Dammit," he grumbled. "I feel naked without my armor on. I don't like this."

Sango stuck her head out the door. "Oh shut up, it's only for a few hours!"

Miroku patted him on the back as he stepped out from behind Ginta. "Yeah, and after that you won't be wearing anything for the next few days but a smile!"

"Onii-saan. Can you please refrain from dirtying my mind any further than it already is?" His voice was dead serious, but he gave Miroku a smirk and a wink. Oh how the lecher had rubbed off on Sango's little brother. Miroku had spent the past three nights imparting every bit of knowledge he could about the carnal arts, preparing him and instructing him on how to best please his new lady as well as himself. Kohaku was definitely not going into this new situation unarmed, and from his warrior's viewpoint, this knowledge was as good as a weapon.

Kaede waddled up the hill, surrounded by a mass of children, Shippo at her side helping her to the top. She was grandmother to this throng of kids, a mish mash of demon, hanyou and human children. She loved them all regardless. She was coming to oversee this marriage, at Kagura's request. The wind witch didn't want the lecherous monk sullying her human bond with his lusty antics.

Kagome came down, finally, leaving Sango to put the finishing touches on Kagura's hair. "Geeze Koga. These kids are a mess!"

"No they're not! They're clean, they're a little wrinkled from playing is all!" He reached down and smoothed the front of Sora's kimono with his large hand. "See? All better!"

"I was talking about their ratty looking hair!" She whipped the hairbrush out, causing her entire clan to groan. "Well, if you'd keep it neat to start with it wouldn't hurt when I brush it!"

"She is correct," Sesshomaru said, who always knew the value in keeping one's hair neat and clean. That bastard had the nicest head of hair anywhere in Japan, second to Rin. It was rumored that he brushed it five times and washed it twice a day. Of course Rin said it was nonsense, but the rumor raged anyway.

A few moments later, after Kagome had straightened her kids' hair out and properly tied back her mate's mane, she sat her whole clan down where the ceremony would be taking place, Shippo among her group. Sesshomaru and Rin sat near the front on silken cushions, side by side, elegant in their royal attire. Their daughters sat behind them, wearing matching kimonos and matching hairstyles, similar to that of Sesshomaru's mother. Their oldest daughter's locks were pewter colored, the younger one opalescent white with pewter streaks. Sesshomaru's offspring were highly desired in the yokai world. He'd already turned down several arranged marriages for them both, and they were only technically three and two years old, despite their pre-teen appearance.

"It's time everyone." Kaede had set the altar up under the sakura tree in Miroku's front yard. It was in full bloom and absolutely divine in fragrance. Kohaku waited outside Sango's door. His sister made a quick exit and then sat amongst her family as the ceremony began.

Kohaku escorted a breathtaking Kagura from his sister's home and gently led her to where Kaede sat. There were vows exchanged, sake drank from ceremoniously tiny saucers, more words and blessings. Finally Kaede stood and said, "Man greet your wife! Woman greet your husband!"

And in something that hadn't been done before at any of the demon/human unions previously, Kagura promptly skipped the obligatory kiss and bit him on the neck, right there in front of everyone, much to the delight of demon males, who whooped and hollered and cheered them both on. Once Koga explained quickly to Miroku what was happening, he joined in on the hooting too, realizing this was nearly the same as having sex at the altar. Kagura, being an elemental demon, had no form to shift into so to speak, but when her yokai spoke, the reaction to the demons and their mates was instantaneous.

"MINE…" she purred as she released her grip on his tender flesh, lapping the blood from his wound. "ALL MINE…" Kagome and Rin suddenly turned a beautiful shade of red, and Ginta simply smiled and laid his head on Hakkaku's shoulder. The demon males seemed to grin to themselves and nod their heads. This was something they could relate to, a happy memory they'd already had the pleasure of making, granted in different ways. Kohaku recovered from the shock of being bitten in public, and then they ate. They ate like kings and then drank into the night. Once nightfall came, Kohaku took his mate home and locked themselves away for the next few days. The families dispersed for the night, all bidding a fond farewell to Sesshomaru and his clan, who said they'd be back to spend a month after he'd dealt with some dignitaries from the north. Miroku and Sango carried a child each as their girls walked with them back to their home, worn out and ready for bed. Kagome and Koga nestled their little ones with Ginta and Hakkaku, as Koga wanted to try for another baby after Kagura's obscene display.

But once they got back to their house, they simply laid in each other's naked embrace, enjoying the peace and quiet that was so rarely afforded to them anymore. Koga pulled his mate closer to him, smelling of her hair and soft skin. She ran her fingers along his bare forearm, content to be warm and safe and in the arms of her true love.

"Can you believe it's been seven years since we defeated Naraku?" he said as he stared into the dark. "I never thought I'd never be happy again once Kagura had wiped out my pack. I vowed to avenge them, and I did. And now," he said as he kissed her neck, "I don't think I could be any happier than I am right this minute."

"I can't believe we completed the jewel. Do you know how long InuYasha, Miroku, Sango, Shippo and I looked for all those damn shards? I can still remember the bittersweetness I felt that day. I like to think that InuYasha was there when we completed it at Goshinboku. I like to think that he helped me slide the last shard into place. I hope he was smiling when I wished for it to disappear and leave us all in peace." Her eyes drifted closed, in memory of that day.

She had waited to complete the jewel until after it was certain that Koga had completely recovered from his injuries when she almost purified him to death. She had asked Sesshomaru and Rin to carry her sons as they went to Goshinboku's roots and stood at the place where Sesshomaru had buried InuYasha's head. Miroku laid the back of his right hand on top of the stone cairn marking InuYasha's resting place, the Sango laid her hand in his, then Shippo's tiny hand, and then Kagome's palm holding the jewel was last. Koga withdrew the final shard from his forearm and gave it to Kagome, and she slid it in place, completing the Shikon no Tama with a light 'tink' sound. She used her energy to purify the jewel, and it glowed a pearly pink. In a voice that was not heard but felt, the jewel asked, "What is your one true wish?"

In unison, the inu-taichi responded, "Shikon no Tama, disappear and leave all those affected by Naraku in peace."

The jewel seemed to hiss for a moment. Its pearly essence seemed to swirl and change shape as it considered the demand made of it. And then in a flash of purple light, the jewel was gone.

Their quest was finally at an end.

"Hey, you're not falling asleep are you?" Koga asked as he nuzzled his anata's cheek. "We still have to try for another baby."

She laughed. "You say that every time there's a wedding."

"And?"

"We don't have to try for another baby, we already have an infant. Why don't we just have fun in here tonight?" She felt his hand come around to her swollen milk filled breast.

"Hmm. How do you suppose we do that my love?" He was licking slowly over her mating mark, her most sensitive spot.

"It's been a while since your yokai came out to play…" she panted.

"See, _you_ say _that_ everytime there's a wedding!" He pinched her nipple roughly.

"Oh," she said. "Sorry, saiai."

Koga felt his eyes go red, Kagome felt his body go hot, and she smiled in heated anticipation. "Doesn't mean he doesn't want to come out… You ready my bitch? 'Cause even if you ain't I'm comin' to fuck you anyway…" Kagome giggled but that girlish laughter was soon replaced with something much more adult, and their cries of passion were soon heard throughout their little hut, and truthfully, a little beyond their yard.

It was spring, and in that little corner of Edo, a crop of a different sort was being planted that evening.

* * *

THE END


End file.
